Dawn of Exploration
by Skynica Dryhern
Summary: I finaly figured out how to publish!  Thank you sister!  So... Well, the title says it all... I know that it's very similar to the original game series- don't worry, it gets different.
1. Intro

Intro To Dawn of Exploration

"Once upon a time, there was a little human girl," Said the mother Ninetails to her youngest child.  
"Human? Golly…"

"Yes," said the Ninetails, smiling to herself. This was a story that she had made up a very long time ago.

"Any way, this little girl loved all Pokemon. She had a Miltank and a Torchic and many other Pokemon. But her favorite Pokemon were the wild ones that she met whenever she went for walks. But do remember that she did love all Pokemon."

"Did the little girl ever see a Ninetails like you, mama?"

"I don't know. She may have at one time."

"You're a special Ninetails, mama."

The Ninetails smiled and continued her story. "One day, when she was on one of her walks, she happened to get lost. She happened to come along a Teddiursa. She asked him, 'Mr. Teddiursa, do you know where my house is?'

"'No, I do not know where your home is, and I'm kind of busy, eating… yeah…'

"'Oh, that's ok. Thank you anyway!' said the little girl."

"That's not very nice…" said the young child.

"Next, the little girl met a Chikorita who was sun-bathing in the bright sun shine." Her mother continued, ignoring her child.

"'Miss Chikorita, do you know where my house is?' the little girl asked.

"'No, I don't," the Chikorita replied irritably. 'Would you please go? You're like, blocking my sunlight.'"

"No one will help the little girl,"

"So, the little girl kept walking until she met a Snorlax.

"'Mr. Snorlax? Do you know where my house is?'

"But the Snorlax didn't answer, because he was asleep."

At this point, the baby started to laugh. The mother Ninetails smiled as she wrapped her long silky tails around the baby. She continued:

"So, the little girl kept on walking and walking until she was so tired she couldn't walk anymore. The little girl sat on a rock and started to cry. But suddenly, the rock she was sitting on started to move. It was a big Golem, and it didn't seem happy that it had been sat upon. The little girl was so scared that she forgot how tired she was and just started to run and run and run as fast as her little legs could carry her. She finally ran back home and into bed, where she fell fast asleep."

The Ninetails looked down to find that her baby was also asleep. She stood up, stretched, and went outside into the cool night air. The baby's father was waiting for his bride. The couple sat down and watched the sun set over the distant horizon.

"How is Summer?" the Lucario asked.

"Sleeping like a Snorlax," the Ninetails replied, "But not nearly as loud,"

"Chase will be back tomorrow," said the Lucario.

"I have not forgotten," said the Ninetails. "And this time I am ready to tell her my story. Our story,"

The Ninetails leaned her head on the Lucario's chest and closed her eyes, remembering nearly every detail of the last 300 years. Three hundred years since Team Diamond had started.


	2. Chapter 1, Storm at Sea

Chapter 1

A Storm at Sea

I screamed again, "Whoa! Wh-wh-whoa!" Lightning flashed close by.

That voice replied, "Are… Are you Ok?"

"No!" I yelled I realized the owner of the voice was holding my arms. "Don't let go!"

"Just a little longer… Come on, hang on!"

Lightning flashed again as I replied "N-n-no! I can't… Hold on…!" I screamed as lightning flashed close by "WHAAAAAAAAAAA!" I was wretched from the grasp of who ever it was and was tossed into a wet, suffocating blackness…

The first thing that I noticed when I woke up was the crashing of the ocean's waves close by.

"Where… where am I…?" I mumbled to myself as I struggled to regain my reason. "No…" I whispered as I started to fade in and out of consciousness. "Drifting… Off…"

I have no idea how much time passed before I woke up again. There was a small, worried voice that seemed to be directed to me.

I opened one eye, then the other. There was a sort of blurry image in front of me. A face, a body, and arms. Why was he only wearing blue and black? Who ever it was, he was kneeling next to me and gently shaking me.

Once he saw that my eyes were opened, though, he started saying new words. At first I couldn't understand, but then I realized that he was saying, "You're awake! That's a relief. I was seriously worried about you. You were unconscious and you weren't waking up!"

I stood up, but instantly felt dizzy. I sat down again.

"I was… Unconscious?" I asked. I looked at my surroundings. There was a beautiful sea and a sandy beach. But when I looked at the owner of the voice, I was quite surprised. Not only was there a Pokemon (a Riolu at that), but there was no one in sight. It had a beautifully carved charm hanging from a cord around his neck, but other than that, it seemed like your average Riolu. Except the fact that he must have been the one who had spoken.

"Yeah, unconscious!" replied Riolu. "You were zonked out right there," he continued, pointing at my feet. I didn't bother to look down. I should have.

"But… You're a Pokemon… How can I under stand you? I'm a human. Only humans can talk... Right?"

"What?" cried out the Riolu. He looked at me a little strangely then said, "Well, I can't really tell what you are, but I'm guessing Vulpix... although your color is kinda off…" he said, pointing to my chest. I looked, not to find my pale skin, but instead, a soft, furry chest. The color was not the burnt orange of a regular Vulpix, but rather, it was black. Blacker than night. I looked behind me. Yup! 6, pure white tails accounted for! I looked at my paws. They were the same color as my tails. It looked as if I had stepped into a snow drift. Rushing over to the water's edge, I looked in. My black face stared blankly back. I noticed that my hair, like my paws and tails, was white. So were the tips of my ears. Another strange thing that I noticed was that I had bright blue eyes, the color of sapphires. Yeah. Just a little off on the coloring.

"It's true…" I whispered, turning to look at Riolu. "I've turned," then I turned towards the sea, then screamed at the sea, "INTO A FRIGGIN' POKEMON!" but my words were drowned out by small ember that flew out of my mouth. It extinguished the moment it touched the water with a "PFFT!"

"Well, if it makes you feel any better," said the Riolu, "My name's Timothy. But everyone just calls me Tim. What's your's?"

"My name? Oh yeah! That's right, my name's Alex… yeah… that's right… I think…"

"Well, at least you know that much. How about anything else? Do you remember how you ended up here?"

I shook my head. I tried to get a grasp of the last thing I remembered, but it slipped away. I became conscious that my arms/legs/paws were hurting, but then I looked at Tim, and to my shock, I saw a Koffing and a Zubat coming up behind him with incredible speed. They knocked him over, also knocking the charm from his neck. Tim fell on me, knocking me over.

"Hey! What the **** ?" he shouted. Oh dear.

"Hey, Tim! Boss ain't happy. He wants this." said the Koffing. It went over to the fallen charm and picked it up with great confidence.

"Third time you getting' mugged for this. See you, kid!" snickered the Zubat. The duo retreated to a nearby cave and disappeared from sight.

Looking at Tim, I could tell he was heart-broken.

"Ohhh…" he said.

"C'mon, Tim. Let's go out after them!"

"What?" he said. Looking at me, he had a funny expression on his face. "They're bigger and stronger than us."

"So? They stole from you. That is unkind. We need to get your item back!" it sounded so crummy and false.

"Whatever," he said. He followed me into the cave.

There were only 4 floors to that cave. I believe it was called Beach Cave. There were only water types, so I was stuck using roar and faint attack. Not that I knew anything else.

At the pit of the cave, Koffing and Zubat were sitting at the bottom, looking glum. They couldn't find their way out, I discovered later.

"He-Hey!" shouted Tim. Koffing and Zubat turned around.

"Oh, look! It's our little friend, the chicken!"

"Bawk Bawk!"

Still stammering, Tim continued, "Gi-give me b-back what you stole from me!"

"Oh, you want it back?" asked Koffing, "Then fight for it!"

Now that I look back on that first battle, I realize that it was unbelievably easy. If we were to have a re-match today, Tim, who is now level 96, and me 100, well, you get the picture… Any way, Tim started out with a quick attack on Koffing: 12 damage. I ran up to Zubat, but he attacked me first: 13 damage. Koffing scooted up to Tim, but I lashed out with a faint attack: 15 damage. Tim used bite on Zubat: 15 damage; Zubat out. Koffing used Toxic on Tim: no damage this turn. I was quick to react with a Faint attack: 18 damage, Koffing out.

"Ohhh…" sighed Koffing.

"We got roughed up by these wimps?" asked Zubat. Picking himself off the ground, he threw the charm at Tim. "Take it, you wimp!" he yelled at Tim, "Don't think you won this on purpose, chicken! Your victory was a fluke!" and with that, the duo ran off.

"Oh Yay!" said Tim, picking up the charm, "I got it back!" turning to me, he started crying, "And it was all because of you, Alex! Thank you!"

Back outside, Tim explained everything to me. "You see, this is my relic fragment," he told me, holding out his paw for me to see. "Well, that's what I call it any way. It looks like just a plain old rock, but look! It has a pretty inscription on the top!"

"Where'd you find it?" I asked, some what curious. I was still trying to remember the last fragment before I had slipped into unconsciousness…

"Well, I don't know, really," Tim sighed as he re-fastened it around his neck. "I was just walking along one day and I saw it. It looked kind of pretty, so I picked it up. Those other Pokémon keep on mugging me for it."

"Hmm…"

"Well, any way, thank you for helping me get it back, Alex. But, I must ask, what are you going to do now? I mean, without your memory, you could just be wandering around. It's really unsafe here these days."

Well, what should I do? Tim's right. It is unsafe for me to just wander around.

"Well, if you don't know what to do," Tim asked, sounding somewhat sheepish, "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Hmm? What?"

"Well, you see, I really want to find out where my relic fragment fits, so I was thinking of joining an exploration guild. I chickened out and came here, where I found you. So, I was wondering, um, would you like to join an exploration team with me?"

"Um…" I said. I mean, Tim seemed to be a really nice guy, I mean, Pokemon, but, well, there was no other choice. Who knows? Maybe hanging with Tim, I could figure out the mystery of my past.

"Sure, Tim! I'd love to. There's nothing else to do, so why not?"

"Really? Oh! Thank you thank you thank you! We have to go sign up at Wigglytuff's place, so I'll show you the way!"

So with that, Tim lead me to the guild.

This turned out to be the first step into an epic exploration of the Dawn and beyond!

Would you like to save? Lol :P


	3. Chapter 2, New Guild Recruits

Chapter 2

New Guild Recruits

The tall pink building loomed over head

"This place sure gives me the creeps," said Tim. Shuddering, he stepped on to a grate covering a hole.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" a voice wailed.

"Who's foot print? Who's foot print?"

"Footprint Riolu! Footprint Riolu!"

"You may ENTER!" bellowed the second voice. "Get your friend to stand up there!"

Tim moved so that I could step on the grate. I was sort of worried that it would tickle my feet or that I would fall through…

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!"

"Who's foot print? Who's foot print?"

"The foot print is… the foot print is… um…"

"Sentry? Sentry? Sentry Diglett who's foot print?"

"Um, maybe Vulpix! Maybe Vulpix!"

After that, who ever Diglett was talking to and Diglett started fighting.

"Um… are they… arguing?" snickered Tim. I was also amused.

"Sorry to make you WAIT!" shouted the 2nd voice, "It's TRUE that we don't see many VULPIX around here… but you SEEM to be a good Pokemon… OK, You may ENTER!"

The door that had previously been closed was opened, so Tim and I both stepped in. we crawled down a hatch and to the next floor.

There were many Pokemon down there, including a Bidoof and a Sunflora arguing, a Pidgey and a Seedot were having a quiet conversation, 3 pooceyenas yapping to each other, and a Bulbasaur and a Cyndaquil talking to a Nidorian. It gave them 3000 poke and a heal seed. When it walked away, Tim and I had to move away from the hatch. Bulbasaur and Cyndaquil spotted us and came over to us.

"If you need to post a job, you should talk to Dugtrio," said the Cyndaquil, "Unless you wanted to ask us personally,"

"That would be nice," Continued the bulbasaur. "It would make us feel special. Or something of that extent."

"Well, we aren't here for that," Tim replied. "We're here to make an exploration team,"

"Well, why not join ours?" asked the Cyndaquil, "Team Sapphire is the best of the best!"

"Um, sorry, but we must refuse. We want to join the Guild." I replied.

"Oh! Even better!" said the bulbasaur, "because we are also members of the Guild! New recruits!"

"What's that I hear? New recruits?" a voice said. I turned to look at a Chatot coming towards us. "Are you the Pokemon who just entered?"

"Yup!" replied Tim. "We want to make a new exploration team!"  
"Wow, that's not something you hear every day! Come with me to get registered.

Oh, please excuse my manners. My name is Chatot! I'm the Pokemon in the know in these parts! Please go down this hatch. Mean while, I must get my money from these two," he gave me a strange look, like 'holy **** what the **** are you?', then he looked at Bulbasaur and Cyndaquil meaningfully. "Ok, Summer and Quinton. Give me the Guild's share of the money."

I was almost heart-broken when Summer the bulbasaur and Quinton the Cyndaquil only got to keep 10% of the money they earned. But I went down the hatch and waited for Chatot to come. A few seconds later, Chatot flew through the hatch and landed on a perch that was nearby.

"This way…"

"Oh, I'm Tim, and this is Alex."

Chatot nodded and led us to 2 closed doors.

"On no account should you in any way discourteous to the Guild Master," chatot warned. Then, turning to the door, he squawked, "Guild Master? It's me, Chatot! I'm coming in!"

Tim and I followed Chatot into the large room. It was cluttered with several seemingly random items such as a Grovy-Shoot, a Wiggly-dew, a Defense Orb, and tons of apples.

At the far end of the room, there was a tall-ish looking pink form. Chatot led us over to it.

"Guild Master? These two children want to join the Guild." When the Guild master didn't reply, chatot asked again, "Guild Master…?

So suddenly it made me jump, the pink form turned and looked at me with wild, green eyes. Oh beware those eyes of terror!

"Hiya!" it said.

…meep…

"I'm Guild Master Wigglytuff!"

Scary… well, not haunted house scary, but he's just kind of creepy.

"A little Birdie told me that you want to make an exploration team! What do you want to name your team?"

"Name?" asked Tim, "Um… Do you have a good name idea?"

"Sure! How 'bout Diamond?" off the top of the head…

"Oh, I get it! Yeah! That's perfect!" then he whispered, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"Ok, so Diamond it is?"

"Yup! I'm positive!"

"Ok then, let me register you!" after several seconds, Wigglytuff shouted, "YOOM-TAH! You're now an official exploration team! Here, take this!"

He threw a box to the ground. It immediately opened. "Oops! It's not supposed to do that! Must be broken! I'll get a new one soon, oh yes I will! Anyway, look inside!"

We did as told. There were 2 maps, 2 bags, and a badge for each of us.

"That map is no ordinary map, my young friends! Oh no it isn't! It's a Wonder map! It's very useful! Those bags you can use to stash the different items you find in dungeons! And those badges show everyone that you are an exploration team! And inside your bag, you'll find a little something for the two of you!"

I peered into the bag and saw a glimpse of something shining silver. I took it out. It was a Silver Bow. With Tim's help, I had it in my hair in no time at all.

"Wow! Thank you thank you thank you!" heartily replied Tim. Turning to me, he exclaimed, "We can do this, Alex!" and with that we both cheered in triumph!

"This is where you two will sleep at night," said chatot. He indicated 2 of the 4 beds in the room. There were 5 rooms total and of what I saw there were 3-4 beds in each room. Our room was at the end of the hall. Tim immediately went to his bed.

"Awesome! We get beds!"

"Of course! Now, come along and get some dinner! I'm sure that Chimcheo has some left-overs,"

It was then that I realized just how hungry I was. Heck, I literally couldn't remember the last time I had eaten. Tim looked the same way.

We followed Chatot out into BF2 and across the hall. There were 3 Pokemon in the mess hall: Summer, the bulbasaur, Quinton, the Cyndaquil, and Chimcheo.

"-was very delicious, as always," complimented Summer.

"Well, I'll take your word for it!" Tim said. "Toss me some chow!"

"Any time, sweetie!" shouted Chimcheo. She tossed me and Tim an apple each. I chowed down hungrily, while Tim nibbled his. I literally couldn't remember the last time I had eaten, as I said earlier. So, I obviously was finished first, so I started a conversation with Summer.

"Um… what are you?"

"Well… I think I'm a Vulpix. So, what room is your's?" I asked.

"The one at the end of the hall, But-"

"Oh really? That's mine!"

"So cool! But, hey-"

"Well, I know your name, Summer, but you don't know mine,"

"Well, let me guess. Um… is it Teresa?"

"Nope!"

"Um, could it possibly be Summer, like me?"

"Nada,"

"Hmmm… One more guess. How 'bout, um, oh, how 'bout Alexis?"

"Good guess! But all I remember is Alex,"

"Hm. What do you mean by remember?

"Well, Tim over here found me knocked out on the beach, and, well, I don't remember a thing except my name and that, well, um, can you keep a secret?"

"Of course,"

"Well, the only things that I remember are my name and being a human,"

"What?" she said quietly. She looked panic-stricken, "A human? But, how…?"

"I don't know either," I said, pointing to my chest. "But that's why I've joined up here. Maybe I will learn who I am… was…"

"Mmm…k" Summer said. She seemed confused. "It's illogical…"

"Mmm…" sighed Tim as he finished his apple with a *crunch!* "Very Delicious, Chimcheo! Thanks!"

"Any time, just as long as it isn't anything like perfect apples,"

Chatot shuttered as Chimcheo said that, "Ugh… If the Guild master didn't have his perfect apples, well, um…"

"What?" everyone asked.

"The guild master would um… ….."

"What? I asked again, "I couldn't hear you,"

"Oh, never mind!" he said. He sounded peeved. "Off to bed. All of you!"

I slightly giggled as he chased us off to bed.

"So, anyway Tim," said Quinton, "as I was saying, tomorrow, Chatot will probably give you some unbelievably simple job. Ours was to Beach Cave to get some stupid Oran berry for some idiot. I can't believe that was nearly four years ago."

"Yeah. It was a long time ago." Sighed Summer.

When we got to our dorm Tim nearly went spastic.

"Well, today was fun…" I said. I laid down in bed.

Well! What and exiting day! Well, exciting as it can be while being unconscious for half of the day. But first thing's first. Who or what am I? How the heck did I turn into a Pokemon? How did I end up unconscious on the beach? Oh well. I guess I'll find out as time progresses.

"HEY! WAKE UP ROKIES!"

"Oh, my poor ears!"

"My head's pounding!"

"No need to wake up the world…"

"AAAAAGGGHHHH! My ears! They're broken! You've broken my poor ears!"

"COME ON, ROOKIES! WAKE UP! I'M LOUDRED! I'M A FELLOW APPRINTACE HERE AT THE GUILD! HURRY UP! YOU'LL BE LATE FOR THE MORNING BRIEFING! IF YOU'RE LATE, THE GUILD MASTER WILL HAVE A _BIG_ TEMPER TANTRUM! SO WAKE UP ROOKIES!"

The voice retreated as I attempted to get up. My head was pounding so badly, I could barely sit up without my head hurting.

"Ouch… My poor ears!" cried Tim from nearby. Summer and Quinton simply said good morning, got up, and walked out of the room.

"Hey, Tim," I said. I could barely hear myself. "We should probably go. We may be late to the morning briefing,"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot! Let's go!" he said. "I can't believe I forgot!"

I scrambled for my ribbon, then we ran out of the room, across the hall, and into the main area of BF2.

"YOU'RE LATE!" screamed a Loudred.

` "Oh, shut up, Loudred," Quinton said.

"Yes, do be quiet! Your voice is remarkably loud!" said chatot. I hadn't noticed him standing there, so I almost jumped. "Besides, the Guild Master is not even here yet,"

Chatot spoke too soon. At that precise moment, the doors to the guild master's chamber opened and out stepped, you guessed it, Wigglytuff.

"Ah, yes," sighed Chatot, "Would you please address the guild crew?"

"Zzzz…zzz…zzz…*snort*…zzz…"

"Ewww…" someone whispered, "It looks like he's wide awake…"

"Yup," whispered someone else, "It sure does,"

"Hey hey," whispered someone else, "Is he sleep walking or something?"

"Meh he, he sure is, meh he,"

Chatot nodded and said, "We will take to heart your words of… wisdom…" Turning to the assembled crowd, chatot continued, "Ok, everyone! Time for morning cheers!"

Everyone except for Tim and I started chanting, "A-one, a-two, a-one two three four! One! Don't shirk work! Two! Run away and pay! Three! Smiles go for miles!"

"Ok, Guild! Let's get to work!"

"HOORAY!"

Everyone went off in different directions. I looked at Tim and started to head back to the bedrooms. "I'm going back to bed," I said over my shoulder.

"Oh no you aren't," said a voice behind me. I cringed as it continued, "You are going to do a job, just like everyone else,"

"Whatever…" I muttered as Chatot lead me and Tim up the stairs. After going up the stairs, he led us to the left.

"All jobs take place in mystery dungeons," explained chatot. "It is unknown weather or not this is the result of the messing up of the flow of time, but we have seen an increase of jobs recently. More and more Pokemon have become quite violent, too,"

"So, Alex?" asked Tim, "You know that place where we got my relic fragment back? That was a mystery dungeon,"

"Oh good," exclaimed chatot, "It seems that you two are already quite informed. This will make explaining much easier for me." Turning to the big board behind him, chatot said, "This is the Job Bulletin Board. Pokemon from various regions post job requests here. I'll pick an easy one for you…" after looking for a bit, he pulled down a sheet of paper. "Ah, here's an easy one for you to do today," he said, giving the paper to Tim.

"Oh, let's see," he said. Opening the sheet up, he read, "Hello, my name is Spoink. A thief has run off with my most prized possession, my pink pearl! I just can't seem to settle down when it isn't in its rightful place atop my head! But, I've heard it's been sighted! It was rumored to be on BF7 of Drenched Bluff. It sounds like a safe place to go, but I'm so dinged up from bouncing and springing around, I really don't feel like going. Also, I'm too fat and lazy to go get it. Oh please kind reader! Please get my pearl back for me! Thanks- Spoink. (P.S. if you could also get me a bag of potato chips, that would also be nice.)

"What!" Tim cried. He was in an outrage. "This idiot wants us to pick up some stupid item and get him a bag of chips? Uh, no. I would rather go explore some new cave and find treasure!"

"Oh would you cut it out?" yelled chatot. Tim jumped and gave a little squeal. "Let me re-affirm something to you. If either of you faints in a dungeon, you are both kicked out! Mystery dungeons are not safe places! You must take the utmost care if you want to succeed. Here, give me a wonder map." He pointed to a spot on the map, "Here's Drenched bluff. So, go ahead!" Flapping his wings wildly, he then shouted, "Well, if you understand, then hop to it!"

Tim and I scurried away towards Drenched Bluff. Isn't Chatot such a thorn in the side? I definitely think so...

"Well, we're here," said Tim with a sigh of relief. "The note says that the pearl is on BF7. Let's do a good job, Alex!"

I nodded and we entered the dungeon. Before I knew it, we were already on BF6 and looking for stairs. We met up with several water-type Pokemon of whom I let Tim handle.

"I'm just not that confident in my abilities yet," I told him when we found the stairs.

"Don't worry Alex," Tim replied, "You'll learn soon. Ha! It took me all the way up to level 4 before I was truly confident,"

I smiled and said, "Alright, whatever you say. Let's go and get the heck outta

Dodge!"

"Huh?"

"I don't know either…"

I picked up the pearl. It was a lot bigger and heavier than I expected it to be, but we managed to get out safely and without any problems.

"Ah, yes!" squealed Spoink. "Thank you for retrieving my pearl for me!"

"A pleasure," replied Tim coolly. He seemed to be enjoying the praise.

"And the chips! Oh my gosh! No team has ever remembered to get me any chips! I'll pay an extra 500 poke!"

Along with that, Spoink gave us a protein, a calcium, an iron, and a whopping 3000 poke!

Wait a second… how many times has he lost this thing? 'You're the first exploration team to remember the chips…'

"Alex! We're rich!" squealed Tim. He was bursting with excitement. Turning to Spoink, he said, "Are you sure?"

"Of course I am," came the reply, "Would I give this to you if I wasn't? Any way, this isn't even close to the actual worth of my pearl. Thank you again!" and with that, Spoink went up the stairs.

Chatot came over to us and said, "Now, if you please. Give the money to me,"

"What!" Tim replied. "Why?"

"Oh, don't worry," came the reply. Chatot was dividing the money into two very uneven piles, "You'll get your share,"

Humph. Yeah, right. And what was our share? Only 350 poke.

"WHAT?" yelled Tim. Ooh… he was angry… "We only get to keep 10%?"

"Of course," chatot replied. "There is some money that must go to the guild,"

Growling, Tim stormed off in a huff. I put the money and supplies in the bag and headed after him.

I found him lying down on his bed. It looked like he had been crying.

"It's just not fair!" he said, grabbing a handful of straw. He tossed it into the air and then blew it up. Some fell back down while others became afloat. I was tempted to use my recently learned ember to set them ablaze, but I restrained myself. Wouldn't want to burn the place down, now, would I?

"Well, it's just the price of learning, I guess," I replied heartily. "Hey, we should be happy that we got to keep any money at all,"

"Yeah *sniffle* I guess you're right,"

"That's the spirit buddy!" I said. "C'mon. let's go talk to the other apprentices,"

So that's exactly what we did. We learned that Summer and Quinton were out on a longer job and wouldn't be home that evening.

"Ah well," sighed Bidoof. "They're probably ok, yup yup!"

"Hey hey!" shouted Corphish. "Team Sapphire is the best two member team I've ever seen!"

"Eek! Oh my gosh! You're right!" squealed Sunflora. "They are already tackling the 3* jobs! I've been here for several years and I'm still taking S jobs!"

Heheheh. Stupid Sunflora.

I was just about to ask what she meant about *s and levels of jobs, but Chimcheo called everyone for dinner.


	4. Chapter 3, The Scream

Chapter 3

The Scream

I was awakened by my personal alarm clock, Loudred.

"UP AND AT EM'! IT'S MORNING!" He shouted as loud as possible.

"Ugh… Mornin' Alex," yawned Tim. We got up, I grabbed my silver ribbon, and headed to the main area. I was happy to see Summer and Quinton were there. After cheers, chatot approached us.

"It still seems as if you are lost," he said.

"We haven't even taken any steps to go any where," I grumbled. Chatot obviously didn't hear me as he continued, "Just follow me, team Diamond. I'll show you where to go,"

Chatot lead us to the upper floor, but instead of going to the side we had gone to the day before, the bird lead us to the other side.

"Huh?" asked Tim. "Last time, you gave us a job over there. What's the difference?"

"Well, look at the posters," said chatot. We did as instructed.

"Wow! Look at all these Pokemon! Really, Alex, look! Who are these guys, chatot? Are they all famous explorers or something?"

"No, unfortunately not," he replied. He seemed sad. "No, all these Pokemon are outlaws."

"What!" yelped Tim. He attracted the attention of the trio of poocheyena, but they all simply shrugged it off and continued yapping. "You want us to take out an outlaw?"

"Well, yes. But I'll find you just a naughty thief. Nothing too hard, my friend. Nothing too hard." Looking around, he then changed his mind. "No, actually, I'll just get Bidoof to do it. He looks bored." Whistling shrilly, he summoned Bidoof. "Bidoof, these are the new apprentices. I would like you to show them around."

"Yup yup!" he exclaimed. "That'll do! I'll do my best, yup yup!"

Turning to us, Bidoof said, "Golly, this is nice. I've been the newest recruit before you all came here, yup yup! But now," he continued, starting to cry, "I'm senior to you two!" shaking his head, he started again, "Now, let me show you around,"

Taking us out into the glorious sunlight, Bidoof looked around and admired the day. He walked down the stairs and went right.

"This is the main plaza," Bidoof explained. "This is where all the Pokemon from treasure town usually gather."

"Oh, Alex!" Tim exclaimed. "I can tell you about treasure town, too!" looking around, he showed me a building with piles of money around it. "This is duskull bank. We can store all our money here so that we don't loose it in dungeons."

"That over there is Keckleon market," cut in Bidoof, indicating a store across a small stream. "You can buy and sell items there."

"Hey, Bidoof," said Tim. "You forgot Electivere link shop, although, it doesn't seem to have anyone running it at the moment…"

"Well, yes, as I was saying, beyond the Keckleon market, there is Kangashkan storage."

"We can store items that are really important to us and we don't want to lose in dungeons, like special bows and other things like that,"

"Well, that's it," said Bidoof. "I'll wait at the guild so that you can deposit your money or buy something, ok?"

"Yeah, that works," Tim said. Turning to me, he said, "Let's go to the Keckleon market. Who knows? They may have a really great deal on an item or two!"

So we left Bidoof to go to the Keckleon market.

"Why, hello Tim," said the green Keckleon.

"Who's your friend?" asked the purple Keckleon. To make things much easier, I will refer to each one as either green or purple.

"This is my new friend, Alex," he said nonchalantly. "Hey, do you have any good deals today?"

"Of course, Tim," said green. "Let me see what I have,"

Just as he turned around, though, a Marill and Azurill bounced up, just as happy as could be. Oh lord… kids…

"Hello Misters Keckleons!" joyously sang Azurill.

"Why, hello my little friends," said purple. "What are you doing here? I thought that-"

"Hey, Helloooooooooooooooo?" came a voice. Another one said, "Come out, come out where ever you are….."

"Quick, big brother," squealed Azurill, "Let's go hide," they snickered and went around to the back side of the store. There was an angry squawk from green, but after seeing the brothers, he made no more noise.

I was somewhat surprised to see the members of team sapphire approaching.

"Oh, hey Tim, Alex!" said Quinton.

"Hey, have any of you seen the brothers around?" asked Summer.

"Um… Nope, can't say I have," said purple.

"Sorry, nope," said green.

"What about you?" Summer asked me. "Have you seen the Marill and Azurill brothers?"

"Um… well, what do they look like?"

Summer mumbled something about me maybe getting hit on the head harder than she knew, and then asked Tim, "Have you seen them?"

"Sorry, but no," he said. He bit his lower lip to stop from smiling, but by then Quinton had heard the brothers giggling from the inside of the store.

"Found You!" he said. He hopped the counter of the store and tagged the little children.

"Awwww…" sighed Azurill.

"He got us again!" replied his brother. "You two are awesome at this game!"

"Well, I guess that's why we play. Ok, well, Summer and I've got to go," said Quinton.

"Hey, we can at least talk to Alex and Tim some?" asked Summer.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

"Oh, I almost forgot!" said green. "Here's some apples for you and your mother,"

"Thank you!" said little Azurill. He too the apples, but dropped one. "Oops!" he said. I picked it up for him and handed it to him. "Thanks," he said, smiling. He was very cute, with his little chubby cheeks and huge bouncy tail. His eyes got all googly, but his brother called him. As he and his brother started walking away, it started.

I suddenly got very dizzy. I wanted to say something, but my mouth wouldn't open. Everything went black, but I was still conscious of my surroundings. Sort of, anyway. There was a pure white line drawn across my field of vision and a star radiated from the middle. I heard a shrill scream, "HELLLLLLLLLLPPPPPP!" then everything went back to normal.

"Hey, Alex?" Tim said. "You kind of fazed out there for a second. You 'k?"

"Wait, what?" I stammered. "Did any of you just hear, like, a scream or something?"

"N-no…" said Summer. She was looking at me like I was some freak. "Why that? I didn't hear anything,"

"Nor did I," sighed green. His brother agreed.

"I heard my stomach rumble," complained Quinton. "I'm hungry. Let's go, Summer."

"Uh, ye-yeah…" she said. She was still looking at me. Then she turned and followed Quinton out of the store. "See you two later,"

"Yup!" said Tim. Turning to me, he said, "We should go too, Alex. Bidoof's waiting for us,"

I followed Tim out of the store, all the while thinking. Had I really heard that? Or was it just a day-dream? Oh well.

Tim and I dropped off some supplies to Kangashkan storage. Mrs. Kangashkan was so kind.

"Oh my dears! I'll be happy to store items for you!" she said. Her little child in her pouch cooed. "Now now, honey," she said, gently rocking on the balls of her feet. "In a minute, my child. I'm with customers, my sweet,"

She took our items and put them in the back storage. Coming back, she asked if there was any thing else.

"Nope," replied Tim. He turned to me and said, "C'mon, Alex! Let's go back to the guild"

So we did. Well, tried to anyway. We met up with Quinton and Summer, who were just finishing up their breakfast. We all walked together back to the main plaza. There, we saw Drowzee and the brothers conversing.

"Sure! I'd love to help you look for your item!" Drowzee said. "To ignore a child's plea would be heartless!" he saw us, nodded, and said, "These are two of the finest little boys I've ever seen! They are so courteous, all the pleases and thank you's! I'd never ignore them!" turning back to the boys, he said, "C'mon, let's go!" as they left, Drowzee bumped into me.

"Oops, so sorry," he said, helping me back up. He gave a smile and left.

Then it happened again. The dizziness and blackness, the line and the star. The difference was that I saw Drowzee and little Azurill in a mountainous area.

"Look, kid," he was saying. "If you are going to be difficult, it'll mean big trouble for you,"

"H-he-HELP!" screamed the child. The image faded and I saw only duskull bank ahead. Tim was calling me. "Hell-oooooooooooooooo? Earth to Alex, Come in Alex?"

I blinked and looked at Tim.

"Wassa madda you?" he said, looking not the least bit concerned. "You 'k? you don't look to good, Alex. Something the matter?"

I told him the vision I had just seen.

"What?" said everyone, including Summer. "Drowzee's bad? He sure didn't seem that way,"

"You've just been day-dreaming," said Quinton.

"What else could it be?" continued Tim.

"How could you think up such a stupid dream?" chided Summer. Turning, she looked at Quinton. "C'mon Quinton. We've already picked out our jobs. Let's go." So they went off as Tim and I dropped off the last of our money to the shady Duskull. After that, we returned to the guild to find Bidoof waiting for us.

"About time," he said, tapping a paw on the ground.

"Oh, catch a magicarp, would you?" I said irritably. I hated being called a liar by friends, no matter how new they were. "So… Now what?"

"Well, as your mentor," said Bidoof, looking proud of himself, "How 'bout I do the choosing? Well, let's see… Eenie meenie mineey-" but he was cut off by a rumbling noise.

"AHHH!" screamed Tim. "It's an earthquake! Quick, everyone! To the door frames! Make sure you're wearing your rubber-soled shoes-"  
I looked at Bidoof. He asked, "Is, um, Tim always a spaz like this?"

"I dunno" I said as the rumbling stopped. "I only met him yesterday…." The Outlaw Billboard looked different

"Dugtrio changed the boards, it seems," said Bidoof calmly while Tim was settling down.

"Well, you kind of could have said that a while ago," said Tim, who looked tired. With all his running around like a banshee, I don't blame him.

I looked at the board to choose a job. I reached for one, seemingly drawn to it by a magnet, and I took it down.

"T-Timothy…" I said with a shaky voice when I had seen it. "L-Look at th-this…"

"What?" he said light heartedly. "Did you find some long-forgotten enemy of your past?"

"Worse, Tim. Things just got a whole lot worse," I said as I showed him the wanted poster for Drowzee. He looked at me, then we both sprinted up the hatch and away from the guild. I faintly heard Bidoof calling after us, but we were already gone.

"There's Marill!" exclaimed Tim as he ran down the slope. I saw him too and ran to him.

"Where's your brother?" I asked. Looking around, I also saw no sign of Drowzee.

"I-I don't know," he said. "They were right behind me, and then, poof! They were gone!"

"Where was the last place you saw them?" I asked.

"This way!" he said, leading us away from the town. We arrived at a mountain shortly after.

"Let's go!" said Tim as he led the way to Mount Bristle.

8 floors. Mostly rock and poison type. Kind of hard for me. Woo hoo.

We reached the top of the mountain just as Drowzee was threatening the poor little Azurill.

"-it'll mean trouble for you,"

"H-HE-HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPP!"

"Drowzee, you bully!" shouted Tim. The startled outlaw turned to see us.

"Hey, aren't you those guys from town square?"

"Yes! We're here, Team Diamond!"

"We are here to apprehend you, Drowzee!"

"Oh… well, I'm not going to cuss in front of this kid, but… hey, you, Riolu… you're trembling…"

It was true. Tim was shaking un-controllably.

With a triumphant smirk, Drowzee laughed, "Oh ho ho… I get it now. You two say you're here to arrest me, but you're total rookies! Ha! This should be a laugh!" and thus, the battle began.

I mostly used faint attack, while Tim was using bite. Nom, nom, nom. In no time, we had beaten Drowzee to a pulp.

"Ooooohhhhhh…." He sighed, and then he collapsed. David and I ran around to Azurill, who had been cheering like he was at a hockey game. Things like, "Fight! Fight! Fight!" and "Die!" and, well, you get the picture.

"You 'k?" asked Tim worriedly.

"Yeah, I guess…" he said. Then he saw me and fake-cried, "OH! I scratched my knee. Oh the pain! I need someone to kiss it to make it all better,"

Growling slightly, I gave his perfectly fine knee a small kiss. What I really wanted to do was use ember, but I didn't.

"Yay! All better! Give me a hug!"

"No!"

"Puhweeze?"

"No! It's against the rules."

"Oh… now can I have a hug?"

Ignoring the love-stuck kid, I told Tim to wait here while I went to get the authorities. I came back with officer Magnizone and two of his deputies, both Magnemites.

They took Drowzee into custody and praised our good work.

I grumbled as we walked down the mountain. Azurill was having a field day jabbering about some random thing. Then he stopped and started crying. "Bwover!"

"Azurill!" cried Marill as he came running. Along with Summer and Quinton.

"We came as soon as we heard," panted Summer.

"Y-yeah," said Quinton. He looked like he had run a marathon. I asked him what was up.

"Well, I used a warp seed to explore and try and find some stairs. Well, instead, I found a monster house. Oh joy, there were no more warp seeds."

"Good thing I already knew he was in trouble," said Summer, looking proud of herself. "I came only after 3 or 4 moves. Together, Quinton and I must have KO'd about 20 Pokemon."

"I couldn't have done it without you," said Quinton. "I'm eternally grateful, as always when you save my-"

"Yeah, I get the picture," I said. I felt as if I was in a furnace. "Is it me, or is it hot?" I asked. Everyone shook their head no.

"Hey, Alex," you don't look too good. Again. I'm constantly asking you if you're OK. So, are you? Alex? Alex!"

Well, it's not like I know everything about being a Vulpix! How was I supposed to know that I was supposed to release my internal fire from time to time, or else I'd over heat? Do you think I read the Pokedex in my spare time? Even if I did, I don't remember."

"Well, it's true that you have not been a Pokemon for a long time… apparently… But still, if you ever have an urge to let it rip, then just don't do it near Summer, Alexis. Understood?"

"Yes, Chatot."

Well, now that I know, I can tell you. Apparently, we (I mean that as we Vulpix) control fire balls. But, as a consequence, we must release it every once in a while. What ever.

"Well, at least you're gonna be ok," said Tim. "I was really worried about you."

"Really?"

"Heck yeah! I can't be Team Diamond with just one guy, can I?"

I only smiled at his remark. "C'mon. Let's go eat."

"Yeah! I'm starving!"

_Later that stormy night…_

"Hey, Alex? You awake?"

"mmmhmmm"

"You know what Chatot said the other day ? About the flow of time messing up?"

"Yeah. Why? I was about to ask you what he meant by that."

"Well, as he told us, the flow of time is getting messed up. No body knows why, but everyone thinks it has to do with the Time Gears,"

"Time Gears?"

"yup… everyone believes that time gears exist in special places, like an altar in a forest, a shrine in a volcano, and there may even be one under the sea. Each gear protects the flow of time in it's region."

"So, what happens if a time gear is lost or stolen?"

"No one knows for sure, but we think if a Time Gear is stolen, then time would stop in that region."

I started to feel queasy as Tim continued, "That's why even the most hardened criminal is sure not to mess with them,"

"Tim, I feel kinda… strange… I mean, not fire-ball strange, but as if… never mind, let's get some sleep."

But even as I drifted off to sleep, I knew something horribly bad was happening. Just at that moment.

_Just at that moment…_

_He had given up looking for her hours ago. Now he was looking for what he came here for._

"_Do my eyes deceive me? Could it be? Yes, it is! A Time Gear! At last, I have found it! But, this is only the first of many…"_

"HEY! UP AND AT 'EM! IT'S MORNING!"

"Ugh, Good morning, Alex…" yawned Tim. We both stretched, and greeted Summer and Quinton. I would put my ribbon in my hair and head to morning briefing.

"You, two," said chatot after we were disbanded to our chores. "Your assignment for today is to check out the outlaw and job boards. That is all."

We looked at each other and headed up the stairs. We picked out three jobs in drenched bluff, bought some things at the store, put all our money in the bank, and then went off to do our jobs. After they were done, we came back to the guild and talked to the other apprentices until dinner was served. Then we went to bed. Every day was like this for the next week. That is, until…


	5. Chapter 4, The Gate Keepers

Chapter 4

The Gatekeepers

Our alarm clock rang and we awoke with his screaming still ringing in our ears.

"Mornin' Alex," sighed Tim. "Looks like Summer and Quinton were out on another job again last night."

"Oh well. It's only to be expected."

I put my hair up and we walked out into the BF2. Summer and Quinton were not there. I whispered to Tim that they'd probably be here soon.

"Ahem, ahem," coughed Chatot. Everyone stopped their chatter as Chatot said, "Well, as for morning briefing, as you can see, Team Sapphire is still not back from their previous job yet. Other than this, there is nothing else for me to tell you. Go about your business."

Just as Tim and I were about to go up to BF1, Loudred called over to us. "HEY, ROOKIES! WE NEED YOU!"

"What's it all about?" I asked.

"Well, I can't do sentry duty today. I have to help out my dad. See you," and with that, Diglett was gone.

"NOW GET YOU'RE REAR ENDS IN GEAR!" Screamed Loudred.

"Well, what do we have to do?" asked Tim."

"IT'S SIMPLE. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO DOWN THIS HATCH AND GET TO WHERE THE SENTRY POST IS. FROM THERE, YOU NEED TO IDENTIFY THE VISTING POKEMON'S FOOT-PRINTS. GOT IT?"

"I guess."

"GOOD! NOW GET GOING!"

So that's how Tim and I spent our day, looking at foot-prints of all sorts of Pokemon. It was actually quite fun, trying to get the right Pokemon. At the end of the day, we were summoned by Chatot.

"Well, you two. You seemed to have done a hard day's work. Let me see… Ah, this will do." He then gave us 400 poke, a reviver seed, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

"Wow!" exclaimed Tim "That's a lot of stuff!"

"Yes indeed!" said Chatot. "If you ha-"

"Chatot, Sir!" exclaimed the green blur that nearly fell down the hatch. "We need to talk with you and the Guild Master! This is like, code red. No, this is worse. This is an emergency!"

"WHAAAAT?" yelled chatot. "OK, but first, where-"

"No questions! We need to tell you this!" exclaimed Quinton as he caught up to Summer. And without further greeting, they all rushed into the guild master's chamber.

"Wha-…?"

"So, where were you?"

"Chatot'll explain it soon," came Summer's reply. "You'll see."

"Attention, everyone, attention!" twitted chatot. "I have an announcement to make."

"Well, spit it out, would you?" asked Dugtrio. "I'm hungry…"

"Err, um… yes… well it would seem as if… well… a time gear has been stolen."

"WHAT?"

"B-but… how…? I-it doesn't… make any… sense… at all… no, not at all."

"It's like, you know, like, impossible… right?"

"Well, it would seem as if the impossible has happened," said Chatot.

"Where was it?"  
"Tree Shroud Forest," answered Summer. "We took a job there to arrest a slugma that was hiding there. But when we got there, well, the air felt… dense… I mean, there was no wind… nothing. We went as far into the forest as we could, and when we got to the end, there was an empty slot where the time gear used to be. There were muddy tracks, but they were so messed up, neither Quinton nor I were able to figure out what Pokemon it was." Summer shook her head and added, "Either that or so many other Pokemon, trying to escape the freezing time, had gone over it,"

At first, no one spoke. Then, I piped up, "Does that mean that the other time gears could be in danger?"

Chatot squawked, "Why, of course it does! Officer Magnizone has already begun an investigation. Silly question, silly question,"

I looked at the apple sitting in front of me. I suddenly wasn't hungry.

"I-I've lost my appetite…" I said. I passed my dinner to Bidoof and went to lay in my bed.

A time gear, stolen? I sure didn't know a lot about this world, but I was positive that this was very, very bad.

I couldn't see his form. There was a shadow, talking. He was telling me that we would share no personal stories. Do names really matter? I'll help you if you help me.

"When we get back, I'm going back to stealing time gears, Alex. Alex? Alex?

"Huh? Wha'd I miss?"

"You were dreaming." It was Timothy. "You were murmuring something that I couldn't understand."

"…hmmm… I can't remember my dream… there was a shadow, and it was talking… Eh. It was a dream."

"Really? That's a little… odd… hehe. Talking shadows. Girl, you sure do dream a lot."

"It would seem that way," said Summer, who had just entered the room. She sat on her bed and looked directly at me. "I think I've figured it out now."

"Figured out what?" I asked.

"Your dream thing earlier this week."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Well, it seems as if I can also see stuff like that."

"Oh?"

"Yup! I mean, you know when Quinton fell into the monster house?"

"Y-yeah…"

"Well, I saw that he fell into a monster house when I passed him the warp seed. That's how I was able to respond so quickly."

"Oh… so… does it have a name or what?"

"Um... no, none that I know of. You're the only other Pokemon that I've met who can do that."

"Oh?"

"yep…"

After I took a moment to digest this, I said, "What was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Tree shroud forest. When time was stopped."

"It's kinda hard to explain… Ah ha!" she said, standing up. "Here, touch me."

"Huh?"

"You may have a vision! Then you can know what it was like,"

"Sure…" I said. I touched Summer's paw and waited. And waited. And waited.

"Nope. Nothing."

"Hmmm… Well, that's that," Summer said

"I'm trying to sleep," complained Quinton. "Would you all just shut up?"

I rolled my eyes and fell asleep also.


	6. Chapter 5, The Water Fall

Chapter 5

First Official Exploration

"Hey, you two," said Chatot after morning briefing. "Let me give you our assignment for today."

Tim and I walked over to Chatot. "What today?" I asked.

"The guild master has deemed you worthy of an official exploration. Especially after your outstanding capture of the outlaw Drowzee. So, I have decided to give you an assignment worth notation." We both listened intently as Chatot explained in further detail. "There is a certain waterfall that apparently has a secret. We want you to exploit this waterfall and discover this secret."

Tim looked happy about getting a job, but I was worried.

"W-waterfall?" I asked. "I'm going to be at a type disadvantage. That seems to be the only choice I've had since I've arrived. Type disadvantages, any way."

Chatot seemed to mull over it for a while, then he said, "You know more than just fire moves. You're a strong Pokemon, Alex. Whatever you are, you'll do fine."

"I hope so, Chatot. I'd hate to give the guild a bad name."

"Oh, go just get ready and go!" he said, flapping his wings. Tim snickered as we exited the building. It's a wonderful thing to be with him. Wait, why'd I just say that? He's annoying, vain, and yet… My heart beats a little faster when I think of him.

We headed into town and grabbed some supplies from the storage and were about to go when Tim stopped me. There was a hole in the ground, and near-by was a sign that stated: "Spinda's Café! A place of hopes and dreams! Opening soon!"

"Hopes and dreams?" Tim asked to himself. He turned to me and asked, "What could that mean?"

I couldn't answer because Chimcheo came up, obviously excited.

"Hey, team Diamond! I'm glad I caught you! Here, I need to show you guys something!"

We followed her inside the guild to a roughly constructed booth. Over the top was a banner that said, 'Chimcheo's Team Assembly'.

"Team… Assembly?" I asked. "What's this about?"

"Have you ever wanted to add members to your team?"

"Well, it would be nice, but-"

"Now you can! Here, I'll ring the friendship bell now so it's official! Now when you are traveling in dungeons, some Pokemon will gain your respect and ask to join your team!"

"Err… ok?"

"Good luck on your exploration, you guys!"

Tim and I walked back out and stood at the cross roads, talking the team assembly idea over.

"I don't really like this idea at all," said Tim. "I'm afraid that the new team members would turn on us,"

"Oh relax, would you? Nothing bad will happen! Enjoy life while you still got the breath in you, 'k?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to waste it being lazy. Let's go,"

But before we could, Vigoroth, a Pokemon from town was upon us.

"Yo yo yo! Team Diamond, right? Listen, I'm advertising for another shop today!"

"Huh?"

"Yeah man, I'm doin' advertising for the new Dojo in town. You two should go and check it out. Vigoroth out, little dudes!"

"Um…"

"Should we…"

"We should…"

The dojo itself was just south of the Duskull bank. The first thing that I noticed when we entered was the Marowak leisurely unpacking boxes. The second was a huge hole in the wall that seemed to lead under ground. The Marowak saw Tim and I enter and came over to us, joyously laughing. I shied away as she started talking

"Welcome! Welcome to my dojo! Oh, goodness gracious! Hooray, and welcome to my dojo!"

"Um…"

"Here, let me show you! Ok, so you see that underground cave? Well, there are several different branches, and each has it's own specific type with five floors too each of them. Let me see, there's normal/flying, and grass, and um… Well, you get the picture. But um, besides that, there's the whole item deal. You see, whenever anyone goes into a training dungeon, there's this icky part, where you have to hand over everything that's in your bag, but the good thing is that if you faint in the dungeon, then you get to keep all the money and items that you find, so you can go all out when you train!"

"Um…"

"Well, don't just stand there! Go store your items and come on back to train!"

Tim gave me skeptical look and shrugged. She seemed to be a little loopy, but we did as she had asked us. We asked Kangashkan to store everything and took all of our money to Duskull bank. When we came back, Marowak had gone back to unpacking, but as soon as she noticed us, came back and gave us the exact same spiel that she gave us just a few minutes ago.

"Um, Marowak? We were just in here a few minutes ago… we're back now, to train…"

"Oh! Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I didn't realize…!"

I just smiled and walked past her.

"My best friend was a fire-type! Her name was Toni!" Marowak shouted as we entered the cave. Tim and I started laughing our hearts out the minute we were out of ear-shot of the Marowak.

"Marowak is a whack-job," Tim said. "Get it because, she's a-"

"Yeah. I get it. It wasn't funny. Ok, is it me, or are our opponents getting tougher and tougher?"

"Yeah. Probably."

We didn't make it past floor three.

"Well, so much for that," I said as we came out. Marowak was asleep- or unconscious- on the floor.

Tim and I inched out of the dojo.

"We should probably…"

"Yeah. Let's get our stuff and go find our mysterious water fall."

We did end up going back for more training, and after our first encounter Marowak settled down a lot, but that's not what happened at that moment.

So we left for the water fall. It didn't take long to find it. As we approached, we were veiled in some type of almost mystical mist. We heard it before we saw it.

"The water's sure coming down hard," stated Tim. He went up and touched the water, but was instantly repelled.

"You ok?" I asked worriedly.

"Yeah, it's just that the water was like, really powerful. Here, come see for your self!"

I tentatively went up and was thoroughly soaked and pushed back at the same time. Shaking the water from my coat, I thought, 'Tim's right. It was hard to even stand in that deluge!'

And then it started.

I faintly heard Tim complaining that there was nothing here, but then everything got all blurry. The entire scene in front of me changed. I saw the silhouette of a lone Pokemon jump through the waterfall! But that wasn't even the end, for on the other side was a cave where the Pokemon appeared. It looked around, and then continued on its way. The manifestation ended. Timothy was saying, "C'mon Alex, there's nothing here. Let's go back and tell Chatot."

"Wait, Tim," I said. "I… saw something again… like with Azurill, but this time there was only one Pokemon here and it jumped through the water fall, but there was a cave on the other side, and the Pokemon just looked around and continued right on it's merry way!"

"Huh?"

"There's a cave on the other side of the waterfall, Tim! We have to jump through!"

"What? That's crazy, Alex! How can that be true?"

"Don't you believe me, Tim?"

"No, it's not that, Al, but… I mean, if there was only a rock wall behind the fall, then both you and I, but especially you, could be injured." Tim seemed to consider the choices, then he said, "Alright, Alex. I believe you! Let's get through this obstacle and on through!"

I wasn't sure weather to be happy or concerned. I was happy that Timothy's friendship with me had prevailed over common sense, but for the same reason I was concerned. What if I was wrong? Could I ever forgive myself for our injuries? Would I even be alive to forgive?

It seemed as if Timothy truly believed in me, for he said to himself, "If I fail to jump through at full speed, then I'll be fried magicarp no matter what I do. I've got to be brave. Forever brave!" and with that, me along side him, we ran into the waterfall.

I heard Tim shout, as I hit hard, horizontal ground. I was right after all. Tim proclaimed, "You were right, Alex! Let's go!"

Not exactly as hard as I thought it would be. I guess chatot was right about me being stronger than I thought. There were some Pokemon who asked to join team Diamond. They told me that they were surprised that a Vulpix had beaten them. I said yes to every one of them, but only two other Pokemon were allowed on the team at one time. Towards the end of the dungeon, for Tim's sake, we sent the other Pokemon on our team back.

"It's just that I'm not comfortable around Pokemon I don't know that well. It's been that way since, well, since I met you. I've learned to be cautious."

"Is cautious always right though?"

"Almost always, Alex. Better to be safe than sorry."

We reached the end of the dungeon, and we were stunned with the beauty of the cavern.

"Wow!" said Tim. His eyes sparkled. "Look at all these crystals! We could be- oh, my, Arceus… Alex, look at that one!"

I looked and saw the biggest crystal that anyone had ever seen! Tim went over to it and pulled. It didn't budge. He tried again, grunting with effort.

"Erk… I can't… get it!" he sighed and said, "You try, Alex."

I pulled with all my might, but the crystal didn't budge. "You're right, Tim. It's not going any where."

"I'll try again," he said, going over to the crystal. I moved out of the way and let him at it again.

Then the dizziness started again.

Once again, the solitary Pokemon was present. He went up to the crystal and pushed it. There was a rumble, and a huge tidal wave came and washed the Pokemon away!

I cleared my head, just as Tim leaned on the crystal. There was a faint click.

"Tim!" I shouted! He looked at me, confused.

"What?" he asked. Then, the ground started to shake. There was a distant roar. It was getting closer. "What the… Alex! Look out!" he said. At the end of the passage, there was a huge tidal wave headed for us!

"Run!" I said, but the huge wave swept us up and carried us off. There was only wet, cold, and a suffocating blackness that followed.

"Alex? Hey, Alex?" said the voice. It was Tim.

"Huh? What?" I replied. I tried to stand, but I was left floundering in shoulder deep water. I felt Tim's arms half drag me to dry ground, where I coughed up at least a gallon of water.

"Well hello there, youngster," said a kind old voice. I looked up, seeing an old-looking Pokemon. "You certainly took a while to wake up."

"Huh? Oh, the-"

"I already told him, Alex," said Timothy. "We're at the hot springs now, so we can relax."

"I've had enough with water today," I snapped. I moved a little bit away and shook myself dry.

"Your friend would defiantly be a fiery fire type, if I do say so myself," said the old Pokemon.

"You're right about that, Torkoal," replied Tim. After a small laugh, Tim followed me out of the water. When we were a ways away, Tim confronted me.

"Why did you act that way?"

"Why do you think?" I replied.

"Well, just to enlighten you, that was the town elder, Ms. Fiery"

Well, that stopped me in my tracks. "Huh?" I asked. "Town… Elder? Oh magikarp. That would have been nice to know!"

"I thought I had introduced you!"

"Well, you certainly thought wrong," I nearly yelled. I stomped on ahead, not talking to Tim until we got back to the guild.

Chatot was impressed. "My my! Splendid job you two! This is a new discovery!

Tim went on boasting about how grand of a job he had done, but I remained silent. I was thinking. The Pokemon in my visions, I knew I had seen it before. I ran through all the Pokemon I had ever met. Then it hit me. It was Wigglytuff!

"Um, excuse me, Mr. Chatot? Um, is there by any chance that the guild master could have been to the cave before?"

"What? Tha-that's preposterous! Why would the guild master want someone to investigate some place that he's already been?"

"Well, can't you at least check?"

Chatot sighed wearily and said, "Oh, alright. Because of your persistence, I will ask the guild master this evening after dinner. In the mean-time, well, just go about your studies and all that stuff." Chatot then mumbled something about another crazy group and hopped off to attend to someone else's needs.

After dinner, Tim still wouldn't talk. I asked Summer what to do.

"Well, you could try being nice for a change,"

"What?"

"Ha ha ha! Oh, Alex, you don't need to be worried about being nice. To me, you've always been the most relaxed and fun-loving Pokemon to ever roam this area."

That made me feel better, so I went looking for Tim. I found him sulking in our room.

"Ah Tim… I'm sorry about earlier."

"What ever."

"No, really Tim. I am."

He turned to look at me. He was seeming to study me. It made me uncomfortable. He bit his lip and looked away. "I forgive you, my friend."

"!"

He smiled his little smile and explained, "I look at your aura."

"?"

"Ha! Haven't I told you about it? It's a living shield around all living things. Riolu and Lucario have the ability to see it. Among some others, but only we can really use it well. Pretty cool, Huh?

"? Confused I is?"

"Hahaha! It's kind of hard for other Pokémon to understand it, but I could teach you if you'd like."

"Is still confused."

"Hmm… Well…"

But Tim couldn't finish, because Chimecho called us for dinner.

In the evening, everyone gathered in our room to swap scary stories.

"And the thief continued through the wooded forest, searching for his next target…" Croagunk continued.

"T-then what?" asked Bidoof.

"Do you really want to know?"

"I-I'm not sure…"

"Well, the next thing that happened was-"

Thunder cracked outside, making everyone jump in surprise. Chatot came in, shooing everyone off to bed.

"Um, Alex, and Timothy? The Guild Master needs to speak to you."

Uh oh… Condemnation or commendation?

We went to the Master's chambers with Chatot, not knowing what to expect.

"Well hya! I've got some secrets to share with you two!"

"Like what?"

"Well, I am sorry to say, but I have been to Waterfall Cave before. Alex was right. So sorry to have wasted a day of your life."

"Oh."

"But, to make up for it, I have decided to include you in the roster for candidates of the guild's next exploration."

"What?" exclaimed Chatot. "Rookies? In the Roster for a big exploration? No, I say!"

"They've been doing so well though! I mean, they're already at Silver Rank! I don't think that there's ever been a team to earn so many ranks in only… what, a month? 3 weeks?"

"… Fine, but if they are chosen, then they'd better not mess anything up!"

Back in bed, I was wondering what the Guild Master had meant when he said "big exploration when thunder and lightning lit up the sky.

"Raikou is stirring," Tim said sleepily.

"Huh?"

"You know, the lightning Pokémon? Legendary? Yeah. It sounds like the storm is getting worse."

"Oh… well, good night Tim…"

"ZZZ"

I tried to go to sleep, but I got a queasy feeling in my stomach. I tried to shake the feeling, but it didn't go away until I fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 6, Team Skull

Chapter 6

Team Skull

Personal alarm clock. Tying up my hair in my Silver bow. Morning cheers. It seemed as if it was going to be another regular day at the Guild. But as Tim and I headed up to BF1, I automatically sensed there was danger.

I hard Tim gasp as he pointed to 2 other Pokémon checking out the job bulletin board. "I-it's… It's them…"

The 2nd and 3rd Pokémon I had met, Koffing and Zubat, were hovering, looking at the board. They spotted Tim and I, and immediately came over.

"Oh, look! If it isn't our little chicken and his shiny friend!"

I scowled and retorted "A shiny Vulpix is gold, not black,"

"Ho ho ho, quite feisty!"

"Koffing, you got owned by a mutant Vulpix, ya know?"

There seemed to be a silent argument raging between them, but Tim broke the moment by asking "What are you scoundrels doing here?"

"What's wrong about a team checking out the job board?"

"T-team? Like, exploration team? I thought-"

"Team Skull's the name!"

Tim stood in silence, anger rising to a boiling point. "We're much better Explorers than you guys!"

"Well, what makes you so great, chicken?"

"Er… we… We've gone up 3 ranks in 3 weeks! We're going to be chosen for a huge official exploration!"

"Oh? An official exploration, eh? Well, Tim. I've some news for you," Koffing and Zubat guided Tim over to a corner, shoving him down. "Don't even try, kid," Koffing continued. "You're too chicken. You shouldn't even attempt to go."

"But… But I've got Alex!" Tim said defiantly, breaking away from the living cage. He came to stand by me. "With Alex by my side, I can do anything! Even beat you two!"

"Hehehe," cackled Zubat. "That's only 'cause we don't have the boss with us,"

"Boss? Y-you don't mean…"

"Oh, yes. I can smell him coming!"

I noticed a pungent odor, wafting through the hatch. Enter Skuntank, one of the most vulgar Pokémon you'll ever meet.

"Out of my way!" he roared at me and Tim. Tim stumbled backwards, but I held my ground. Skuntank glared at me, and then, without warning, used smog.

The next thing I knew, Chimecho and Tim were staring down at me. Team skull was gone. Most of the Pokémon were coughing and hacking away. It smelled horrible.

"Alex, are you alright?" flitted Chimecho.

"Yeah, *cough cough* I guess. Ugh, that was disgusting."

"Uh, no kidding." Said Summer as she came over. "Hey, I may be part poison type, but even that was revolting."

"No kidding… *cough cough*"

"That team Skull. Ugh, I just can't stand them!" said Tim. He looked more than angry. He wouldn't talk to anyone for several minutes as he tried to calm himself.

"You see, whenever I'm startled or angry, my aura appears to everyone. It's kind of embarrassing, you know?"

"Well, raging balls of fire can also be embarrassing, too."

We chose our jobs and headed out of the Guild. There was a commotion at the bottom of the hill, near the hole from the day before.

"What's up?" I asked as we came upon the group.

"This Café! It just opened! C'mon!" said the over-excited Mr. Mime as he descended the stairs. Tim shrugged and we headed down the stairs.

The new Café was filled with delightful smells that tickled my nose until I had cleared my brain with sneezes.

"Attention, everyone. Attention!" cried a voice from the front of the room. All eyes looked towards the Spinda, Wynaut, and Wobuffet at the front of the room. "Ah, yes, if I could please have everyone's attention! I am Spinda, and I welcome you to my new Café!"

Everyone gave some sort of whoop or shout.

"Ah, yes, so anyway, I, along with Wynaut and Wobuffet here, have created this shop for the use of all explorers. My store, here on the left, is the bar, where you can make drinks for yourself and your team-mates. So, for example, give me an apple and I'll make you apple juice. Give me a gummi and I'll make a gummi smoothie. Got it?"

"Um, Question?" Timothy asked. "Does our IQ still go up if we give you a gummi?"

"Yes, good question. Depending on what you give me, it will have certain effects on you. Back to the apple example, that will just make you feel happy without any other benefits. But, give me a gummi, you IQ will still go up. But, beware. The not-so good items like doom seeds and grimey foods will also have their bad effects."

"Now, the shop on the right is the Recycling Shop. Ok, so you had your fill of Apple Juice from me, but you still have way too many apples left. Just come here and trade apples for better items, like Oran berries. Or, you can get a prize ticket and chance it there. If you get a prize ticket, then you can get a really good item. Depending on your rank, you can get different colors of Prize tickets. Each ticket will give you different rewards if you win. Are we clear?"

"Yeah!" shouted everyone.

"Let the celebration begin!"

The party was fun, but Tim and I had to leave so we could get at least one job done for the day. Summer and Quinton were leaving at the same time as we were, and when we compared jobs, we found out that we each had 2 jobs on Mt. Bristle.

"We could probably join up and help each other with this. Besides, We have a 2* outlaw" said Summer.

"Sounds like a toughie to me." Said Tim. "Who is it?"

"Let me see…" said Quinton, pulling out the wanted poster, "Oh… It's a level 48 rogue Blastoise."

"So, in other words, you and I will be creamed?" I said unhappily.

"Yeah, but don't forget we also still have Tim and Summer."

"… Alright. Let's go. Quinton and I will try to stay out of the way of that Blastoise."

We had 2 rescue missions on floors 4 and 6, 1 delivery on floor 7, and the Rogue Blastoise on the peak of the mountain.

"Well, well, well," he bellowed when he saw us. "looks like another team has popped up to 'apprehend' me. Ho-ho-ho. Let's go!"

Suddenly, 8 Wartortles dropped in from out of no-where.

"Ok, I did NOT sign up for this!" I said as the 4 of us were backed up together.

"Aww, don't be down! We'll be Ok!" said Tim. "…Right?"

And thus, the battle began.

I used flame-thrower on Blastoise; 43 damage. Tim used Force Palm on a Wartortle, 1 hit KO. Summer used Seed Bomb on another Wartortle, 1 hit KO. Quinton used roll-out on another Wartortle; 1 hit KO. (I guess Quinton is stronger than I thought.) By the end of the turn, I was down to only 29 HP. Could I survive another turn? I had reviver seeds, so I used Faint Attack on Blastoise; 80 damage much to my surprise.

"Grr… Orgh!" he shouted.

Meanwhile, Tim, Summer, and Quinton had already KO'd the other Wartortles. They proceeded to help me with knocking out Blastoise.

In nearly no time, Blastoise was beaten and on his way to jail with Magnizone. Chatot was quite pleased about us working together. "Quite original. But you still only shall receive 50% of the money you earned."

"Well, it's still more than we usually get." I said.

"Hey, wait… each team only gets 25% of the total reward. That's…. Hey, 500 poke each!"

"We earned $2000 today? Cool!"

"Yes, not bad you four. Now, go get washed up for dinner." Chatot said simply.

The next morning…

Loudred clock, cheers, just another day.

Not.

Chatot had a special announcement. "Well, I have a bit of good news. This guild is preparing an official exploration to a far-off place!"

"Whoo! Yeah! All Right!" everyone was cheering. Then, Chimecho stopped.

"W-wait… does that mean..?"

"*sigh* yes, Chimecho, we will be picking out only a few of you to go."

Everyone was silent. Diglett simply said, "Well, that's just the way it is. Some people can't go, and that's that."

"Right!" said Wigglytuff. "Just the way it is!"

"And," Chatot continued, "We will not be alone on this Exploration!"

"Huh?" over half the room asked.

"There will be another strong team joining us for the exploration!" Chatot said excitedly. "Alright, may I introduce-"

But everyone had already caught a whiff of the putrid odor that signaled the arrival of Team Skull!

I started coughing uncontrollably. Tim started to wheeze, and I noticed a faint glimmering around his body. Everyone else was also coughing or sneezing- except for Summer. She was managing to breathe the odor. I then remembered that she was part poison.

"Well, well! Nice to meet you all!" sneered Skuntank. "And well, lookie there, fellows! It's Tim! Long time no see, eh chum?"

Chatot looked surprised. "You… already know these fine explorers?"

"You can *cough* say that…" Tim said coldly. The faint glimmering around his body had taken on a red glow and was getting brighter. I nudged him, and the aura disappeared instantly, like it had never been there.

Chatot remained quiet for several seconds, then continued with his announcement. "The place we are exploring is called Foggy Forest. For centuries, this forest and the surrounding regions have been covered in a thick and unnatural fog. As explorers, it is our duty to find out the mystery of this forest. It is said that a treasure of immense beauty shall be rewarded to whoever discovers the secret."

"Now, in the next few days, the Guild Master and I will be watching very carefully how each individual and each team handles their assigned jobs. In a few day's time, or even a few weeks, we will tell you who will and who won't be going. Alright, explorers! Go out there and do your best!"

"woo…"

"E-excuse me? Where's everyone's usual spunk?"

"OK, Chatot? Doesn't something smell about this? Literally?" Sunflora said gloomily.

"Yeah!" I butted in. "I mean, can't you see that at least most of us are rather uncomfortable around this group?"

Especially Tim. What's his deal with Team Skull?

"Well, personally, no. I don't. And-"

But Chatot couldn't say another word, because the ground started to rumble. I looked around for the source, and I noticed tears were forming in Wigglytuff's eyes.

"OOO…oooh…."

"OH NO!" Chatot shouted. "Quick, everyone! Try and sound cheerful!"

"yooo….yoomm…."

"er… Horary!"

"YOOM…yoomm…"

"Everyone!" Chatot screamed at the top of his shrill lungs. Balls of fire had randomly started erupting around the room.

"HORRAY!"

Suddenly, the shaking stopped, the balls of fire disappeared, and Wigglytuff looked bright and cheerful again. Chatot looked relieved, team Skull freaked out, and the rest of the guild members seemed slightly distraught.

"Alright, guild… go about your duties…"

Everyone left in a hurry, trying to escape the horrible stench that still lingered. But of course, Chatot stopped Tim and I.

"Two things. Timothy, I noticed your aura shining brightly near Team Skull. Now, I may not know much about auras and all those types of things, but I do know that a red aura emanating from any Pokémon signifies anger. Timothy, tell me: have you had any previous contact with Team Skull? And if so, why does it trigger a deep sense of resentment towards that delightful team?"

Tim was silent for a moment, then replied, "It's nothing, Chatot. It's my business, and I would prefer to keep it that way."

Chatot remained silent for a long time, then simply said, "Alright. If you wish it to be that way, I shall not pester you about it." Ruffling his feathers, Chatot continued, "Today, team Diamond, I would like you to go to apple forest and gather perfect apples for the larder."

"Didn't Loudred do that yesterday?" I asked. Sunflora had told me that she felt horrible that he had gotten into trouble trying to save her.

"Well, yes… but the Guild Master raids the pantry every night, and the entire supply has been depleted. I don't know whether Loudred did not collect many apples, or if the Guild Master was on a feeding frenzy, but as I already stated- the larder had been depleted of its supply of perfect apples."

"OK, then. No problem! We'll get some apples!"

"Well, just be sure to gather plenty. If the guild master does not have his perfect apples, he'll… he'll… erk…."

"You said that the first day we were here. What would happen?"

"You don't want to know!" said Chimcheo "It's horrible! Ten times worse than ten minutes ago!"

"That? Oh, that. So ten times worse than spontaneous fire balls?"

"Just go get the apples!"

"Ok, blabber mouth!" Tim shouted. He was peeved for some reason. Eh. It was probably team skull.

Any way, we prepared to head off to the forest. There was a new team from far away visiting treasure town. It consisted of a Combusken named Izzy, a Prinplup named Tyrone and the strangest Staraptor I've ever seen. Her name was Myuki, and if I'm not mistaken, she was what is known as shiny. It seemed like almost everyone wanted to talk to them. But when she spotted me, she came right over to me. Tim was all freaking out. He had obviously heard of the 'legendary team Aven'.

"So. You're also shiny like me?" she asked in a serious way.

"Well, not quite…" I replied in a small voice. This bird was bigger than any regular Staraptor should be. Her feathers shimmered slightly when she waved her wing my way.

"Hey, Izzy! Come meet my new friend…"

"Alex, and that's-"

"HI I'M TIM AND CAN I GET YOUR AUTOGTRAPH? PLEASE?"

I just looked at Tim in the same way I always did when he completely ridiculed me. Which wasn't that often, but it was still 'that look.'

"No problem!" Said Myuki as Izzy and Tyrone came over. Tim produced a piece of scrap paper (yesterday's assignment that he had forgotten to throw away) and I burned the tip of a stick. The three primary members of team Aven each took their turn their turns at signing the paper.

"With Love, Izzy

"Yo from your Team Aven Friend, Tyrone

"Hope to meet again, little dudes, Myuki ; "

Tim heartily thanked them and the birds of team Aven left with a crowd of adoring fans at their heels.

"Someday, I want some one to ask me for an autograph," said Tim. "Yeah, when we get up to Master rank, everyone will be calling our names."

"But right now we just need to get our goofy guild master some apples so he doesn't blow his top. So, quit your dilly dallying and let's go."

We went off to apple woods, but we were followed by a certain three bullies.

There are many things that I love about apple woods. The first and fore-most is that it is all grass and bug types – Major type advantage for me, and the first dungeon to be that way. The bug types gave Tim a hard time, but we made it to the end. The other thing that I love is all the apples. Apples for team Diamond, apples for the larder at the guild, and at the canopy of the dungeon, perfect apples for Wigglytuff.

Or so we had been told.

When we got to the top, there was a huge tree with dozens, no, hundreds, of huge perfect apples.

"But how are we going to get them down from there?" Tim asked. Hmm. Good question.

There was a rustle high up in the top most branches, and three vulgar faces appeared. I nearly screamed, but then Skuntank swallowed his apple and I recognized him and his two menaces.

"Skuntank? You jerk! What are you doing here? Stalking us?" shouted Tim. Once again, he sounded extremely angry. I was going to have to ask him about it some time. But, any way, back to the story.

"Stalking you? Why would we do that?" said Koffing as he floated up and bit into another apple.

"Yeah. We have much better things to be doing. Like eating perfect apples. Hehehe."

Tim furrowed his brows. He whispered to me, "Look, there are still a few apples up there. We can knock them out and get the apples. If there are any left."

"Knock us out? Well that is cruel," sneered Skuntank as he and his minions jumped out in front of us. I could feel the fur on the back of my neck and all along my back starting to bristle and stand strait up. I must be quite the spectacle, I thought through all the rage building up inside me.

"Especially after I was considering helping you."

"Oh really? How?"

"Well, I don't see any way for you two wimps to get those apples, so I'll be so kind as to knock 'em off for you," said Skuntank as he started to back up. Then he turned and ran for the tree. After two or three strong head-butts, several apples came loose and fell at our feet.

"Now, pick up your apples and scurry off home to your stupid guild. Hehehe."

"No," said Tim. I looked at him, wondering what was going through his head.

"Waa?" Asked Skuntank. "Rah! You didn't fall for it."

"I know you guys too well to fall for that one again, you bullies. Team Skull. Ha! You call yourselves explorers, but you are simply picking on the weaker teams for self benefit. You aren't explorers," Tim continued with a particular gleam in his eye, "You are nothing but first-rate thieves!"

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT!" screamed Skuntank. He breathed in a large amount of air, and with Koffing, blew out a very large amount of noxious gas. That was the last I could remember for quite some time.

Tim was hovering over me, looking extremely worried. "All the apples are gone, Alex. The only ones left are on the tree, and there's no way we can get those. Alex we've failed. Oh Arceus, we've failed."

"Tim, it's only the first time. Chatot will get over it."

"Not this time Alex. We failed to get Wigglytuff's perfect apples. Chatot will flip. Oh Arceus, I wonder what our punishment will be? Do you think they could kick us out of the guild?"

"Tim!" I nearly shouted. He looked at me. "You're over reacting, Tim. They can't expel us for not getting some apples."

"Apples for a psychotic guild master! We're ruined!"

"Over-reacting…"

"SQU-SQUACK!"

"See? I told you he'd freak out!"

"SQUACK! YOU HAVE FAILED? OHNONONONONO!"

"Chatot, it's OK. We got apples. Aren't they good enough?"

"Of course not! Only Perfect Apples will be good enough for the guild master! OH NONONONONO! Now the guild master will… AHHHHH!" Chatot completely flipped out, and flew all around the room, knocking around several of the guild members.

"But, Chatot, it's not our fault. Team Skull-"

"I Will NOT have you blaming any other team for your failure, especially that marvelous Team Skull! No dinner for the two of you!"

"What?"

"And you shall accompany me when I tell the Guild Master that you have failed your mission. It would hardly be fair for me to have to face the Guild Master's wrath all alone, now, would it? No, you two disgraces will come with me when I tell the Guild master… Oh nonono… He'll surely…. SQUACK!" and Chatot was thrown into another frenzy of feathers.

So, we waited out dinner, watching the other guild members and Team Skull eat. And worse of all, Chimcheo had made my favorite spicy apple stew, and I could not partake in it. I was truly bummed out. Team Skull constantly threw us triumphant glances, while the rest of the guild just looked at us with shocked expressions like "Oh dear, what did you do?" and the entire time my poor stomach was growling and roaring at everyone. Very embarrassing.

One other unusual thing about that dinner, Wigglytuff was not present. I figured that if he couldn't have a perfect apple for dinner, then he had probably just gone with out and stayed in his chamber. Maybe even forgot about dinner altogether.

After dinner, Chatot nearly had to drag us into the Guild Master's chamber, where Wigglytuff was playing around with some of his items that were piled up.

"Guild Master?"

"Chatot?"

"Well, it would seem that Team Diamond has done less than exemplary today. They have failed to bring back any perfect apples for the larder."

"Oh, it's ok," Wigglytuff said in his usual cheerful tone. "Everyone makes mistakes and goofs up sometimes."

"Well, yes…"

I felt relieved and Timothy nearly sighed out loud, but then Wigglytuff just had to say "So, where's my perfect apple?"

"Th-that is what I've been trying to explain, sir," stammered Chatot. "The number of perfect apples the guild has in the larder would be… zero…"

"Oh." Was all that Wigglytuff could say.

"See Guild Master? I-I told you! They have failed!"

"So no perfect apples?" Said Wigglytuff, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"None!" said Chatot, who started to come undone. "OHOHOHO! NO!"

Wigglytuff started to bawl, and once again, spontaneous fire balls started to explode. The floor shook, and Tim and Chatot started to look around with wild fear in their eyes.

"Cover your ears!" shouted Chatot.

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

An extremely high-pitched whine started to emit from Wigglytuff. It was deafening for me, and I wailed in pain. It was worse than Loudred's wake up yell. I closed my eyes and wished for it to end.

"Excuse me, but I believe you want one of these," said a sleazy voice from behind us.

"Huh?" said everyone.

Team Skull barged into the room with an entire bag full of Perfect apples. Wigglytuff immediately bounded over to them and thanked them a million times. For bringing him is perfect apples.

"Friendly Friend! Friendly Friend!"

"Oh it was nothing, Mr. Guild master. Nothing at all," he said with a sly smirk in our direction. Of course Chatot did not see it, but he did see Tim glare at Skuntank.

"Mind your manners! Show your thanks! They just saved your skin!" whispered Chatot fiercely. I completely ignored him and was ready to turn and go to bed. But then I would get in more trouble, so I waited patiently while Wigglytuff showered Team Skull with all the glories his brain could think of. Chatot dismissed us, and went to bed on empty stomachs.

"Gees, I'm hungry."

"No duh, Tim. I am too."

We got to our room. Summer and Quinton were not there. I was confused. They had been here during dinner. Where were they now?

Tim didn't seem to notice, and he fell asleep almost immediately. I stayed up a little while, thinking random thoughts. And like a bomb, a random memory re-surfaced. I didn't want to wake up Tim, but I was excited. I had remembered something, finally after three weeks. It was only a blipet, really, but it was something.

"Jet was her name," I remember a voice saying. It was old and friendly. "She was the nicest thing you'd ever meet."

"But what happened to her?" I asked.

There was a pause, and the other voice said, "She gave her life to save the world,"  
"Our world doesn't need saving."

"We need you now more than ever."

Then I woke up. It had all been a dream. I almost wanted to cry, but I surpassed the urge and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn't and I was sitting up in bed when Loudred came to wake us up.

After morning cheers with team skull present, Chatot wanted to talk to us.

"After yesterday's catastrophe, I have taken the liberty of taking you off of the roster for the exploration."

Poor Tim, who was already weak from hunger, just about passed out then and there. He was completely silent, but I knew that all of his emotions were welling up inside of him, ready to burst. Silent tears were falling down my face, and I hoped that chatot wouldn't notice. I didn't think he would, and I was correct in my assumption as he continued. I just about completely ignored him as he said, "The guild master may not look it, but he is probably seething with anger on the inside. I just wanted to let you know so that you wouldn't be completely heart-broken when you weren't picked. Any way, I want you to do your regular duties today."

And suddenly Tim and I were left standing there alone, completely stunned.

"As if I wasn't weak from hunger already," Tim said. "Now this. I'm done… I just can't do it… there's nothing left to strive for…" Tim looked pretty bad, and I'm sure he felt worse. I knew that all kind words would be empty, so I just sat there dumbly as Tim started to cry. I was completely powerless to help him.

"Psst!" Came a whisper from the dorms. It was Summer. There she is! She motioned for us to come over. I had to nudge Tim to get him out of his little world of self pity, and we quietly slipped into our bedroom. It was somewhat crowded with Chimcheo, Sunflora, Bidoof, Summer, Quinton, Tim, and I squeezed in there. Silently, each of our friends produced an apple and handed them to us. They gave the signal to keep quiet, and Tim and I ate in silence. Very grateful to our friends we wanted to say thanks, but Chimcheo whispered for us to meet them outside. We all left in unnecessary thirty-second increments. Chatot was paying no attention to us.

When the seven of us met outside, Tim hugged everyone and thanked them heartily for the food.

"But how did you know?" I asked.

"Uh, hello?" said Summer. "You didn't eat at all last night. So, we each saved a bit of our dinner for you. I'm sorry we couldn't get it to you sooner, but-"

"We had to respond to a thievery incident that happened soon after dinner." Finished Quinton.

"You two need to keep your strength up for the exploration!" interjected Bidoof.

"About that…" I said.

Timothy continued, "Chatot came and told us that we wouldn't be chosen for the exploration because of our failure."

"He can't say for sure," said Sunflora. "Wigglytuff can be somewhat erratic, and no one can ever tell his next move. It will be impossible to tell until the morning of."

"And besides," said Quinton, "Everyone in the guild wants you to go. Or at least WE here at Sapphire want you to go."

"But that wouldn't be fair to the other members who are doing a good job in their work, wouldn't it?" I said. "We utterly failed thanks to team skull, and the other teams have been doing their best. It just doesn't seem right to let the ones who failed but has everyone's back go but not let the hated members who happen to do a good job."

"It's all up to the Guild master," said Bidoof. "But up until then, We all gotta try our best, yaw hear me?"

"Right!" said our little huddled group, and the masses departed. Team Sapphire Had another huge job out in a far-away place called Happy Out-look. No team under Master Rank could go there for any occasion, and it would seem that Team Sapphire had only recently found out about the place. They said that the job would take at least 2 days to get there, the entire dungeon was huge, and then the trip back would take two or more days.

"We'll go as fast as possible, but I'm not promising anything. If it comes to the worst, Chatot knows to just leave with out us,"

"What? Why? We need you during the exploration, Summer! And Quinton, you too of course, but we need you two!" I cried.

"You are the highest-ranking of any of the guild members, and you probably have a reserved spot in the exploration," said Tim.

"And Summer, we could probably use the ability that we have to help out a lot. Since it's very likely that we are not going to go, you really need to be there," I said with a tone of seriousness.

"As we said, we'll be doing our best to make it back on time," said Quinton, "But to do that," he said with a smile, "You need to let us go now,"

The diamonds said good-bye to the sapphires, and they headed out into the cross-roads beyond.

"I… I have this… weird feeling…" said Tim.

"It's nothing, trust me. Nothing can happen to Sapphires."

"Except for Diamonds."

I smiled up at him, and we headed back to the guild to check out the job boards.

The rest of the week went by slowly. Tim and I tried to ignore Chatot. We were both angry at him, and we were trying to show it as best as we possibly could. We were doing a good job.

There were many jobs to do those final five days before chatot would be announcing the chosen guild members. Saving Pokemon, delivering items, guiding lost Pokemon, and busting outlaws! So much fun, and yet, the entire time, I could feel Tim's sorrow over the probability of not being chosen for the exploration.

Eventually one night before dinner, Chatot proclaimed that he would be announcing the results for the chosen explorers in the morning. Tim only looked at his plate. He was obviously upset.

"Eat." I told him.

"I… I'm not hungry…"

"Yes you are. You said so yourself just as we were coming back here to the guild."

"Ok, I'm not hungry now…"

"Eat!" I said a little bit too loudly. Everyone started looking at me and Tim. He shoved his plate away and stormed away. Some of the other guild members got up to go see what was wrong with him, but I shook my head and got up myself. I found him in our room. He was nearly in tears.

"It's not fair," he whimpered.

"Life's not fair," I said, sitting down across from him. He sat up and looked at me.

"Who says?"

"I say. Tim, I've lost my memory. Is that fair?"

"No, I guess it's not."

"Listen, Timothy. I want to go on this exploration as much as you do, but you just need to stop complaining. Not everyone gets what they want all the time, Tim. Do it for me. Come, eat please."

I gave him my most convincing smile and he smiled too. We walked back to the dining room and finished our dinner.

_Later that night…_

"Hey, Alex?"

"Huh?"

"I may not know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I know one thing's for sure. I've got you by my side, and with my best friend, I can do anything…"

His words brought tears to my eyes, and I prayed that he couldn't see or hear me. I rolled over and said good night.

But there was a queasy feeling in my stomach that kept me awake for several more minutes. Tension? Fear? Or something far worse?

_He had given up all hopes of finding her. Even worse, he had lost his bag during his journeys. His three most valuable items had been in the bag, and he'd only managed to save one._

_ But it was of no matter any more. He could easily get another bag or make one himself. And besides that, he had arrived._

_ "Ah, yes… the second time gear. That leaves only three more…" _

The entire guild stood at attention while chatot walked our ranks.

"Today, members of the guild, we are choosing the expedition members."

I attentively looked around. Tension filled the air, and everyone was on edge. I looked up at Timothy. He was extremely jittery. Still no sign of team Sapphire. If they were coming back, it had to be now or never.

"Here, I have the memo with the names of the chosen expedition members," chatot continued, bringing my attention back to the piece of paper he held. "And now I shall commence with the choosing. Ahem… Loudred, you are the first member,"

"YEAH! WOO HOO!" he said as he went to stand up front.

"Err, Corphish,"

The lobster-like Pokemon went to stand near Loudred silently

"Oh? What have we here? Well, then! Bidoof, you are next,"

"What? Really? Oh, golly!" said my excited comrade. "Well, gosh and golly, but…"

"Err, Bidoof? Please come stand up here…"

"Well, I would if I could, Mr. Chatot, sir, but it seems that I've been rooted to the spot…"

Chatot, obviously annoyed, grumbled something and proceeded. "Sunflora, Chimcheo,"

"Yay!" said the two girls, skipping up to be with the other chosen members. My own heart was thudding against my chest.

Suddenly, there was a clatter from above. Summer and Quinton came down the hatch, bruised, but seemingly delighted to be home.

"H-hey, guys…"

"What did we… miss…"

"Oh, team Sapphire! I was just about to call your names for the expedition! Please, go get washed up and then come stand over here with Loudred and Sunflora and the rest of the already chosen members,"

Team Sapphire nodded and went to their bedrooms.

"Hmm," Chatot said after looking at the note again. I prayed that that was not all who was going, at least let Tim go, if not me…

"Well, it seems that the guild master can't make up his mind," I heard Chatot mumble. Clearing his voice, he continued, "Croagunk, Dugtrio, Diglett, and…" Chatot looked directly at me and Timothy with a mean look on his face. "It seems that Alex and Timothy have barely managed to make it onto the list. Humph. Well, that's everyone who's going… Wait, SQUACK?" Chatot warbled as he was thrown into a tizzy. "Guild master! I believe you have made an error! It seems that everyone in the guild shall be going!"

"Yep!" said Wigglytuff. "I got the idea last night, and it made me so happy that I couldn't fall asleep, so I got a perfect apple and the list of the chosen members and wrote down all of the guild members!"

"Then the entire process of choosing members was completely pointless?"

"Yep!" said the guild master with a huge smile on his face.

Chatot just stood there, shocked. Recovering, he said in a small tone, "Well, that's that… Everyone, pack your bags. We leave once everyone is prepared…"

Chatot flew up the hatch, along with the Guild master and team Skull. Apparently, they were going to formulate a strategy. Summer and Quinton returned, looking refreshed. All of the guild members made a big circle, and we all started to talk.

"Nice banana peel entrance, you two," I said to team Sapphire.

"We went as fast as possible, using pure seeds on several of the floors, and blasting the living day lights out of any Pokemon we saw," said Quinton.

"Vicious!" I said teasingly.

"Eh, well, it got us here on time, so I guess we have a good reason. We leveled up a lot, too." Said Summer.

"It's a good thing you did, too. We were no-kidding just about to leave,"

"Uh, yeah. We were kind of here…"

"Ok, Listen everyone!" said Tim. "We're all going, which is totally cool, but that means we all must work extra hard to make it to the Foggy forest. All right, guys. Let's Roll Out!"

The entire town had noticed the excitement in the air, and had prepared accordingly. The store had some special deals, Kangashkan had some extra room in her storage house if needed, and everyone was in an exceptionally good mood in general. Even that team skull seemed in a slightly better mood than usual.

Marowak was happy for us, but also sad that we were leaving. Not very many other teams trained with her. We had been training a lot in her dojo. She wished us luck and gave us big sensei hugs.

Our treasure bags were starting to get slightly worn, and I was getting worried that they wouldn't be able to last the trip. While Tim was finishing up at the bank, I quietly tried to find Wigglytuff. I found him in his chamber, stuffing his mouth with apples. He looked up at me with a startled look on his face.

"Don't tell Chatot." Was all he said.

I told him my concerns about our bags. Wigglytuff smiled and patted my head. "I'm already on it," he said. "Just get your old bag packed and return to the guild when you're ready."

I had a sneaking suspicion about what our guild master was planning, but I played dumb when the guild had gathered.

"Ok, guys," said Wigglytuff. "I've noticed that all of your bags are starting to get a little worn down, so…" he turned around and picked up a large sack, "I've ordered new bags for all of you for the exploration!"

Everyone seemed to be slightly surprised, especially chatot. Question: is this where our hard earned money goes?

Tim and I transferred our items from one bag to the other. After everyone had done this, Chatot fluttered his wings to get everyone's attention.

"Attention! Attention!" he said. Everyone quieted down as chatot announced the 'game plan'.

"If we were to travel as one big group, our mobility would be restricted. Therefore, I have split you up into several groups. Group one: Sunflora, Chimcheo, and Diglet. Group two: Croagunk, Dugtrio, Corphish, and Loudred. Team Sapphire shall travel as one group along with Croagunk, as will Team Skull. Of course, the guild master and I shall be going as a duo…"

"Awww… I have to go with Chatot?" the guild master said in a whiney tone. "He's so boring!"

"Of course, sir. It is strategically correct that you and I travel together."

"… Meanie…"

I, along with the rest of the guild, laughed slightly. I think that even team Skull may have smiled.

"And lastly, Team Diamond shall have Bidoof to accompany them on this journey."

"Well, golly," was all Bidoof said.

_And so, the guild set out on their major expedition to Fogbound lake. Many adventures await our explorers, as do many more mysteries and questions…_


	8. Chapter 7, The Big Exploration

Chapter 7

The Guild's Big Exploration

Everyone, after receiving their teams, plotted a course to the Foggy forest. Bidoof, Tim and I each had our own ideas, but we finally compromised and set out on a coastal route.

"By golly, look here!" said Bidoof. "There's a cave here!"

"No duh," I said sarcastically. This much traveling had made me a little grouchy, and I had been snapping off to both of my travel partners. This was a big exploration, and I really had no idea how to take it.

"Hmm, Well, we should probably check the map," said Tim. We opened up the wonder map. Tim pointed to the coastal route that we had been following. "It seems that we are averaging about three miles an hour… At that rate, we'll be at fogy forest by… Oh dear, four days?"

"That won't do," I said. "We'll need to pick up the pace a little bit. We need to get there in about two days. Or even better, tomorrow."

"But golly, Alex. Isn't that a little fast?"

"Might be, might not be…"

"Well, let's go. Time's being wasted," Tim said. He took the lead and started to head into the cave.

It was then that I truly noticed how much Tim had changed since I had first met him on the beach. He was really taking a leader's roll. It must be the exploration that's bringing it out.

"Uh oh…" Tim said.

"Uh oh what?" Bidoof said.

"Two things. Number one, There's a statue here, and it's kind of creeping me out. And number two, there are two paths here."

"Oh! A Kangashkan Rock? I've seen one of them before!" Bidoof said with a shock.

"Really? Where? And, um… What is it?"

"Well, A Kangashkan rock is a mighty helpful thing to us explorers. You can check your storage and save at the statue. They're usually right before a larger dungeon and at a half-way point in a dungeon."

"Huh… Wait, didn't you say that this was your first exploration?"

"Yup yup!"

"Um, then why do you know about these Kangashkan rocks?"

"Well, once we get a goin', I'll tell you about it."

"Well, what path are we going to take? There are two, as Tim said…"

"I think that you should choose, Alex. So, should we take the Side path or the Coastal Road?"

"Hmm. Let's try the Coastal Road. But not before getting ready."

As it turned out, Coastal Road was the better choice. It was a simple dungeon. Because of Tim and my over-training in the Dojo, it was really easy. Bidoof really didn't have to do anything.

After we cleared the coast, we came to a large mountain range.

"Hey, Alex?"

"Yeah? What?"

"Well, I was thinking… Well, maybe it would be better if we stopped here for tonight. I mean…"

"I think that what Bidoof is trying to say is that it would be night-fall before we reached the other side of this mountain. It would be better if we camped out here for the evening. Besides, I'm hungry."

"Eh. Fair enough." I said, setting my bag down on a rock. "But that means we'll be going double-time over this mountain range tomorrow."

"Fine by me," Tim said, starting to gather some fire wood. "Hey, I wonder how the rest of the guild is fairing?"

"Huh. Golly, well… I reckon that they're all probably either still traveling or already there at that foggy forest place that chatot was telling us about."

After getting a fire started (Courtesy of me), we talked. Bidoof told us about the first time he had encountered a Kangashkan rock. (Maybe I'll write Bidoof's Wish. Probably not. I'll see how popular this series gets first.)

After Bidoof told his story, Tim and I each told our own stories. Tim made up a story about a haunted house with a Rotom that caused a lot of trouble. I myself couldn't think of anything, so I made up one as I went along.

"Once upon a time, there was a little human girl."  
"Human? Golly…"

"Shut up Bidoof and listen to the story."

"Any way, this little girl loved all Pokemon. She had a Miltank and a Torchick and many other Pokemon. But her favorite Pokemon were the wild ones that she met when ever she went for walks. But do remember that she did love all Pokemon.

"One day, when she was on one of her walks, she happened to get lost. She happened to come along a Teddiusa. She asked him, 'Mr. Teddiursa, do you know where my house is?'

"'No, I do not know where your home is, and I'm kind of busy, eating… yeah…'

"'Oh, that's ok. Thank you anyway!' said the little girl.

"Next, the little girl met a Chikorita who was sun-bathing in the bright sun shine.

"'Miss Chikorita, do you know where my house is?"

"'No, I don't," the Chikorita replied irritably. 'Would you please go? You're like, blocking my sunlight.'

"So, the little girl kept walking until she met a Snorlax.

"'Mr. Snorlax? Do you know where my house is?'

"But the Snorlax didn't answer, because he was asleep.

"So, the little girl kept on walking and walking until she was so tired she couldn't walk anymore. The little girl sat on a rock and started to cry. But suddenly, the rock she was sitting on started to move. It was a big Golem, and it didn't seem happy that it had been sat upon. The little girl was so scared that she forgot how tired she was and just started to run and run and run as fast as her little legs could carry her. She finally ran back home and into bed, where she fell fast asleep."

Apparently, my comrades had also fallen asleep. I only smiled and curled up and fell asleep, just like the girl in the story.

The next morning, I was the first one up. I went over to the nearby Kangashkan rock and grabbed an apple for each of us. Tim was up next, stretching and yawning. Bidoof was last, sitting bolt up right and screaming something illegible. Tim and I looked at him, and after a few seconds, burst out laughing.

"Not funny. I was having a nightmare."

"Oh, what? All of the food in the world disappeared?"

"…"

I could barely contain my laughter, but then I realized the severity of something like that actually happening. O well. Hehehe…

After clearing up our camp site, I checked the Kangashkan rock, Tim checked our bags, and Bidoof stood around, looking bored.

"Hey, I never heard the end of the story last night. I fell asleep… Golly, what I heard of it reminded me of my mama's bed time stories she told me before I left home to come to the guild."

As we headed up the magnificent mount Horn, I re-told the story to Bidoof and Tim. Mount Horn was a huge mountain, easily the longest dungeon that I had ever been on. But luckily for me, it was mostly bug types. Much to my surprise, of course.

At the base of the mountain, we fond a deep forest. Eventually, we realized that it was starting to get rather foggy. After we realized this, we decided that we were probably in the foggy forest and thus getting close to the camp site.

Soon, we stumbled into a clearing. Through the fog, I recognized the silhouettes of all of our guild friends. The minute Chatot noticed us, he started yelling at us, saying,

"Tsk tsk! Team Diamond, the rest of the guild arrived hours ago! Hurry and unpack your bags and get ready for a meeting!"

I didn't immediately go. I had the strangest sensation in my gut. It felt as if…

"I've been here before…" I whispered to myself. Tim called me over to the Kangashkan rock, and I was snapped out of my little world.


	9. Chapter 8, Groudon's Heart

Chapter 8

Groudon's Heart

"Well, it seems that the entire guild has arrived without too much difficulty. Now that everyone has assembled, we must devise a strategy. First off, as you have all noticed, we have been covered in a deep fog. This does not seem to be a natural occurrence, so your jobs are two-fold. Number one, find a way to lift the fog, and number two, find the lake itself."

The guild had assembled in a large clearing. Several pink tents had been set up (Obviously representing everyone's favorite guild master.) We were standing in a similar order to what we stand in at the guild. Team Skull was near by, too. I have no idea if anyone was actually listening to Chatot, but if they were, they were doing a lousy job of showing it.

"Um, Chatot sir? If I may…"

"Yes, Chimcheo?"

"Well, while we were traveling, I heard a certain legend… It has a lot to do with the fog bound lake and the foggy forest area…"

"A place like this is certainly going to have legends and folk-lore attached to it, but continue."

"Well, um… it says that there's a Pokemon here, like, guarding the lake. It's name is Uxie or something like that. But any way, it is said that it's only purpose is to protect the lake, so yeah… It is also said that this Uxie dude is the embodiment of knowledge, and can give and take it at will. So to protect the lake, it wipes the memories of all who find it."

I stood still as stone. Ok, call me crazy, but I already felt like I'd been here before. And now there's this legend with Uxie who could erase the memories of a Pokemon. Or in my case, human. Could Uxie have wiped my memory? But how does that explain my transformation into a Pokemon.

Chatot dismissed us to go search the forest on our own time. Everyone went off in a hurry, bragging about how they would be the ones to discover the lake. I over heard Dugtrio and Diglett discussing the possibility of the lake being underground.

Team Sapphire was about to head out, but we managed to stop them before they did. We persuaded them to come with us into the forest they heartily agreed.

I hung back while the other three went ahead. I was thinking, "Well, anyway, no matter what, I know that I've been here before,"

"Hey, cool! Guys, look at this!" It was Tim, and he was hunched over near a clump of grass. Summer, Quinton and I looked over his shoulder. There was a beautiful glowing stone sitting on top of the grass. Tim picked up the stone.

"Whoa! It's warm! Feel it!" Tim pressed the stone against my side. He was right. There was a strange heat emanating from its center. Tim passed it to Summer and Quinton.

"Well, that's weird. When we were heading out, we didn't see anything… and that's something that I would notice, don't you think?"

"huh. Weird. Oh well. It seems to be some sort of gem stone. I think I'll keep it."

"But Tim!" I whined. "You already have a cool rock! Can I keep that one? Please?"

"Haha! Sure, Alex."

"Yay!" I felt like a child. Tim handed the odd stone, and I put it into my bag.

"Now are you two ready to go?" Summer asked. I don't know if she was irritated or just tired form traveling.

"Ready, Freddie!"

"My name's not Freddie."

"It's a saying."

"oh…"

We all set out into the foggy forest. The fog lowered my accuracy, and also made me feel closed in and slightly claustrophobic. After several floors, we got separated from team Sapphire. The last things that I could hear them saying was to continue on and we'd meet back up later.

We soon came to another clearing. There were gushes of water raining down from above. It was too concentrated to be rain, and the fog made it impossible to tell where it was coming from.

My sensitive ears picked up on a near-by voice. It was Corphish, so Tim and I discussed our findings with him.

"Well, I did find a big statue, hey hey!" Corphish said.

"We found a rock!" I said happily.

"Whoopee for you." Corphish said. He was probably thinking psycho, but it didn't bother me.

"Lead us to the statue!" Tim said. Corphish did so.

"I just about ran into it, it's so foggy out here," Corphish complained. "But it's an interesting statue, none the less."

Corphish was right. It looked like a huge Pokemon, but one that I had certainly never seen before. It was colossal!

"Hey, look here!" Corphish said. "There's a plaque here. Tim, could you read it?"

"Hmm… Um, I think it's something like this: 'When you re-ignite the life that burned within Groudon with the drought stone, the sky shall blaze with the sun's heat, and that shall lift the fog…' Wait, lift the fog? But… it doesn't say what the drought stone is…"

"Tim, let me touch the statue!" I said. Tim and Corphish looked at me strangely, but then Tim seemed to understand. He stood back while I stood up on my hind legs and placed my paws on the statue. I waited for a while without seeing anything. Corphish started grumbling something. I tried to concentrate as best as I could.

Then it started.

I didn't see anything, but there were a few voices talking. I was able to distinguish three. This is what they said:

Voice 1: These are no regular rocks, little friends. This one is the Drought stone.

Voice 2: Just like on the statue!

Voice 3: Thank-you captain obvious.

Voice 1: Stop it, you two. You are worse than squabbling Starly! Anyway, the way to 're-ignite the life that burned within Groudon' is by placing the Drought stone into the chest of the statue.

Voice 3: Seems easy enough.

Voice 2: Yep. Ok, so what's that other rock?

The voices faded, and I was brought back to reality. Tim and Corphish were looking at me. I told them what I had heard.

"But those voices bother me. I mean, I barely got a sense of what they really sounded like…"

"But drought stone? Kind of vexing, hey hey…"

"Wait a minute… Drought stone… Hey, could it be-"

"I think that it is… The glowing rock!"

I rushed around the statue, to the front. Just as I suspected, there was a hole in the chest of the statue. "Here Tim! I can't reach up there, so get up there!"

Tim took the Drought stone and hopped up on the statue. He fitted the stone into the hole. It was a perfect fit! There was a slight click as Tim hopped down from the platform of the statue. The three of us looked up to see the statue's eyes start glowing red. Then the ground started to shake.

"Hey hey! It's dangerous, so let's get outta here!"

The three of us started to sprint away, but there was a bright light that engulfed us all.

I opened my eyes. The fog had cleared. The sunlight was extremely harsh, and I felt it's rays strengthening my fire-type moves. I felt something moving under me. I nearly screamed as I was hefted several inches away.

"Ow…" Tim said. "You landed on me…"

"Sorry…"

"Hey hey! Look!"

Tim and I looked everywhere but up. Then we did look up, and were stunned by the sight.

"Well, there's our problem!"

"So… You think it's up there?"

"Yep. The mystery of fog-bound lake is that it's up on a plateau. Up there, I think that the treasure of immense beauty is up there."

High above us was a goblet-shaped plateau with water was pouring out of the top, like an over-flowing wine cup.

"Fog-bound lake is up there!"


	10. Chapter 9, The Mystery of Fogbound Lake

Chapter 9

Part 1

The Mystery of Fog Bound Lake

At first, the three of us just kind of stood there, mesmerized by the sight. Then Corphish said, "Hey hey, I think that someone should head back to let everyone know what just happened. I'll go."

"I guess that means that the two of us will find an entrance and try to get up there. Thanks Corphish"

"Hey hey, no problem!" he said as he turned and left.

Tim and I were just about to go ahead and leave when we heard something to our left. I turned and immediately smelled something pungent. I immediately knew who it was.

"Cha ha haw! Great job, you two! Wonderful job! Now we can knock you two wimps out and explore the lake ourselves! Cha ha haw!"

"No way!"

"We won't lose to you!"

"Woah ho ho, have you forgotten our last bout?"

"Heh! You two got trounced!"

"Yeah, well, that was a while ago. We've gotten a lot stronger. We can beat you guys!"

"Then bring it on!"

The five of us were just about to lunge at each other, when a shiny red apple started to roll in front of us. It bounced up and hit my chest.

"Come back Perfect apple!" I heard a voice saying a little bit away. Wigglytuff appeared, brushing off his apple. "Oh, perfect apple, I love you so much! If I lost you, I don't know what I would do!" Wigglytuff finally noticed us. "Oh, Hiya! What are you guys doing? You two need to be exploring! Go on!"

"But-"

"Oh, now you aren't listening to me? Boo! Boo! Skedaddle! Go explore!"

I opened my mouth to say something, but Tim grabbed my Silver bow and ran off. I chased after him, of course, trying to get it back. I was shouting and laughing all the way, though. How ingenious of him to get me away from a dangerous situation like that. We chased each other to the cave-like opening in the bottom of the plateau. There was a Kangashkan rock, so we grabbed some extra things such as a sleep seed and an x-eye seed. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

_Wigglytuff stood there, admiring his perfect apple. Team Skull were debating on what to do._

_ "Wigglytuff is like, creepy man," said Koffing._

_ "Yeah. Hey, I've heard rumors that Wigglytuff has a priceless treasure."_

_ "Hmm. Yeah, I heard that too. I was planning on mugging him for it soon anyway. Now is the perfect time. The great explorer Wigglytuff is going down!"_

The lower steam cave had many fire types. They were all trying to use fire-types moves on me. I assume they thought I was some kind of dark-type. My flash-fire ability maxed out the power of my fire type moves when ever I was hit. It didn't even hurt. Unfortunately, there was another target. And there were more than just fire-types.

But we made it to the half way point without too much trouble. There was a Kangashkan rock here, but we couldn't seem to store or take out items. We were just going to pass it up, but suddenly Tim looked around.

"Did you hear something?" he asked. I shook my head. Even my super-sensitive ears hadn't heard anything.

"You must be hearing things," I said. But then I did hear something…

"grrrroh…."

"Ok, I did hear that!" I said, starting to get scared.

"W-we'll be ok. Trust me on this. Like when we leapt into the waterfall. Yeah, like that. We'll be ok."

I smiled up at him. Even through our fear, we still had all the trust in the world.

Then I realized that I still hadn't told Tim anything about my strange sensations. When I told him, he looked at me, and then said, "Well, there's just one more reason to get to the top."

We continued on our way.

_"Yo, boss… You've been staring down Wigglytuff for a while now… what's wrong?"_

_ Wigglytuff turned and looked at Team Skull "Oh? You have been making such strange faces at me." Then he made a silly face. "Oh, I get it! You are trying to make me laugh! I can make you laugh too!" And with that, Wigglytuff let loose with a whole bunch of strange faces. "BLABLABLOOP! BLEEBEBLOP! BLOOPAWAFFLESABLOOP!"_

_ Koffing looked at Skuntank. "Dude… this is getting creepy…"_

_ "Yeah, I know…Hey, Wigglytuff!"_

_ "?" Wigglytuff asked in his crazy way._

_ "Prepare to get Skunked!" he roared, as he and Koffing let loose a large dose of smog…_

The rest of the steam cave was very similar to the first half, except there were actually quite a few bug types. It surprised me, but I was able to take them out easily. Tim? Not so much.

"But hey- that's what I'm here for!" I said as we ascended the final flight of stairs. Above the final floor, there seemed that there was some sort of canyon. Tim seemed tense.

"Th-the air… it feels… dense… it's as if… the very air is… filled with tension…"

There was a bright flash and we heard a tremendous roar, like "GROO-OOH!" but ten times louder. I was fearful for my life. Tim looked the same way. Small tears were forming at his eyes.

A short thump reverberated through the ground. And another. It was getting closer…

Tim gave a soft whimper as a huge- no, colossal Pokemon appeared! It roared so deafeningly loud, it nearly busted my ears. And there I saw it, coming towards us.

"It's… the same Pokemon as the statue…" I whimpered

"That Pokemon really exists?" Tim shouted. We both looked at the Groudon, stomping towards us. "I need to be brave…" he said.

_At the base of the plateau, the rest of the guild had assembled at the statue. They were discussing what was happening. _

_ "Are you sure?" Chatot asked. "Because no one's here anymore. By the way, has anyone seen Team Sapphire?"_

_ "No. No one is here."_

_ "Hmm. Well, that's that. Let's go. The guild master and Team Diamond and Sapphire must have gone up ahead."_

_ As the guild went on ahead, Diglett thought he heard something. He ignored it and continued behind his dad._

_ But he had heard something. It was… (drum roll)_

_ Team Skull. They had been whooped by Wigglytuff (Because Wigglytuff is amazing like that!)They were so embarrassed. LOL!_

_ Corphish asked Chatot about Groudon. "Is he real?"_

_ "Only in legend, of course."_

_ "Hey, what would happen if you tried to, uh, let's say, battle Groudon?"_

_ "Battle? Out of the question! It would be like throwing your life away!"_

"More brave than ever…" Tim was saying. Groudon moved closer and roared again.

"YOU WHO DISTURB THIS PLACE, LEAVE!" he said.

"I'm scared…" I whispered to myself. Tim touched my head absent mindedly, and I immediately felt better. What do I have to fear with Tim by my side? He was probably thinking the same thing.

"No," Tim said. "We came for information. A-and we aren't going to go!" Tim was being brave. If he could be brave, so could I!

The battle began. I started to go up to Groudon, but a huge earthquake went through the ground. I had no idea what was happening, so I just stood there. I ended up taking a lot of damage. Meanwhile, Tim did know what he was doing, so he used the earthquake to his advantage. Leaping from one heaving block to another, he made his way onto Groudon's back. I used flamethrower, but it simply bounced off of Groudon's chest. Like, 12 damage, maybe? Meanwhile Tim was up on Groudon's back, Force-Palming away. -100, -120, -98, down until he was pretty beat up…

Groudon was groaning on the ground. Tim climbed down off of it's back. I ran up to him and nearly tackled him with a big hug. He looked surprised, but then hugged me back. We both looked and turned to the Groudon.

"Something doesn't add up though…" Tim said. "Chimcheo said that the Pokemon protecting this lake was-"

But he was cut short by a bright light. It was coming from Groudon. It got to bright to see, but then it cleared. Groudon had disappeared. I looked around, surprised.

"W-What?" Tim asked. Then, we heard it. The voice. It was small, but still strong with power.

"Who are you? What do you want with this place?"

"We're explorers…" I said. "We've come-"

"I know what you want!" Said the voice. A light started to glow in front of us. It took form. It was small, with a yellow head and a blue body. It had two long tails, tipped with small fans. He did not look happy. "You have come here to steal-"

"Would you listen!" Tim said loudly. He was starting to glow red with anger and frustration. "We aren't here to steal anything! We are explorers, and we would like to leave with something. But not treasure, I assure you!"

"And you expect me to believe that?" the Pokemon asked.

"Who are you?" I asked. "I mean, are you Uxie, the guardian of this lake?"

"Uh, duh!" he said. "And you do know that I can wipe the memories of Pokemon?"

"That's what we're here to ask you about," Tim said. "This is my partner, Alex."

"Hi," I said.

"We believe that Alex may have been here before, and that you wiped her memory clean,"

"Yeah… I woke up on the beach with only the memory of my name and being a human before that,"

"Oh really?" Uxie said. He did seem surprised. He came up to me and stared me in the eye. Sort of, because his eyes stayed closed. Then he spoke. "I am sorry Alex, but you have never been here before. Aside from that, there has not been a human here in centuries. And third, I can only wipe the memories of this lake, thus protecting this lake."

"O-oh…" I said. My heart fell.

"Well, that's it then. You haven't been here before Alex," Tim said. His look was neutral.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Uxie said, "Ok then… um, well, you two have earned my trust. I would like to show you something. Please, this way,"

Tim and I looked at each other and followed Uxie.

Uxie brought us out of the mini canyon out onto a small pier-like rock. "Hey, it's night," I said.

"Thank-you captain obvious," Tim said.

Tim and I looked out at the lake. "This is Fogbound lake," Uxie said.

"Thank-you captain obvious," Tim said again. Uxie looked at him with a strange look. Tim's face flushed slightly.

"Please cast your eyes to the center of the lake," Uxie said. We did as instructed.

"Wow!" Tim said. I said the exact same thing. The lake was beautiful. Ilumise and Volbeat had come out to play over the lake. Out in the center, there was a bluish green light emanating. Tim and I looked closer. My pulse started to race as Timothy asked, "Uxie, wh-what is that?"

"That," Uxie said, "Is the Time Gear of Fogbound Lake,"

"The Time Gear…" I said. "So you protect the Time Gear…" I could feel my pulse getting faster. I closed my eyes and sat down. I started to calm down a little.

"The Time Gear is the sole reason I am here," Uxie said. A small smile crossed his face. "If I wasn't stuck here taking care of this Time Gear, I would be traveling the world,"

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's one of those crazy things that you'd never expect someone like me to think. Don't you think?"

"Hmm," Tim said. We all stood looking out at the lake for a while. Suddenly I heard the soft patter of footsteps behind us. I turned to look and was surprised at who it was.

"Well, we can't take a Time Gear, that's for sure," Wigglytuff said.

"No kidding," Said Summer. Team Sapphire was with the guild master. Wigglytuff went up to Uxie and said,

"Hi! You're Uxie, I'm Guild master Wigglytuff!"

"Uh…" Uxie said. He looked at Tim and I.

"That's our Guild master," I said. "And this is another team from the guild, Team Sapphire,"

"How many other teams are there?" Uxie said, looking worried. I knew what he was thinking. If too many Pokemon learned about this place, then he could risk the secret leaking out.

"There are no other organized teams, but there are some others who operate as just explorers and bounty-hunters."

"But hey, Wigglytuff's Guild is famous for it's awesome reputation," Quinton said. "If you want us to keep a secret, we'll keep it. We don't shirk work, we don't run away, and our smiles go for miles!"

"Wow Quinton. You have no imagination. You just took the guild's motto."

"Well then," he said. We all started laughing.

After a little while, Uxie showed us how he had conjured the Groudon illusion. He made it move around a little. Then I noticed the rest of the guild standing behind the illusion. They were all petrified of the illusion. Uxie started to have a little fun. He made the illusion go toward the rest of the guild.

"DON'T EAT ME I'M NOT TASTY!" Corphish screamed. We all started laughing. That's when the rest of the guild noticed we were there and the water started spouting. We all turned around and watched the beautiful sight.

The Illumise and Volbeat all lit up and started dancing in the starry sky. The Time Gear sent up a bluish glow through the fountain, and the lights from the Illumise and Volbeat bounced and sparkled off of the waves. Tim scooted a little bit closer to me. I looked up at him. With the most beautiful scene as a backdrop, I kissed him. It was only a little lick, but we both blushed pink. We returned our gazes to the water.

Everyone else stood behind us, watching. Quinton started clapping. Then Wigglytuff, and soon the rest of the guild, along with Uxie, followed suit. Tim and I blushed even more.

Eventually, the water stopped spouting. Uxie made his way to the front where everyone could see him.

"You guys have earned my trust," He said. "So I have decided not to take your memories away."

A small hurrah went up from the guild as Uxie continued, "But I must ask you, please don't tell anyone about this place. And I mean anyone at all,"

"In the name of this guild," Chatot said,

"We swear not to tell a soul about this lake," Wigglytuff continued. "Now, Chatot, if you may,"

"Guild! We are heading home!" Chatot said. Everyone cheered.

_So, the Guild's big exploration ended, and everyone returned home. But when they got there, someone was waiting…_

"Myuki?" I said. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh… What am I doing here?" she said. "This is what. Team Aven has been disbanded,"

"What?" Tim asked. "Why?"  
"Dodrio. Each head tells a different lie. Poor Izzy has gone psycho. She can't think strait. Tyrone has become an outlaw. No one can reason with him to stop. The first thing I thought of was you guys. So, um… Do you think that I could join Team Diamond? I can't join the guild. I've already graduated."

"You used to be an apprentice here?" Tim asked.

She nodded. Tim and I looked at each other and nodded. So then and there, Myuki became a member of Team Diamond.

_After Myuki joined the team, there was no stopping Team Diamond. They went up the ranks, and eventually reached the Gold rank. We had a little party. Yay for us! Then again, that was the night we discovered that another Time Gear had gone missing. There wasn't anyone living there though, but we were still worried about it. Besides that, the days passed by. We rescued, arrested, and guided Pokemon. That is, until…_


	11. Chapter 10, Dusknoir

Chapter 10

Dusknoir

It seemed like it would probably be another day at the guild. Just another one of those regular days where Tim and I could blow half of the day down in the café and then go and rescue someone lost in beach cave or another close dungeon. After that, we could either go back to the café or go to the guild and gossip there. We'd have dinner then go to bed. That was our life.

But of course something just had to happen to us. Stupid destiny.

After morning cheers, Tim and I were looking at the two bulletin boards. There were some harder jobs on Mt. Horn. We decided that we would prepare for that today and go tomorrow. But our preparations were cut short by Diglett's warning siren. We listened to everything.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" Diglett wailed.

"Who's footprint? Who's footprint?" Loudred asked.

"The footprint is… um…." Diglett stuttered.

"Diglett? Who's footprint?"

"I don't know!" he said. Loudred flipped out.

"DIGLETT! YOU ARE THE MAIN SENTRY! Now, if it were team DIAMOND, I wouldn't be surprised, but-"

"I heard that!" I shouted down the hatch. Loudred looked up and laughed at me. "YOU LOOK FUNNY!" he said. All I could do was glower at him. Meanwhile, Diglett was conversing with the visitor.

"You want to meet with our guild master? Ok, but- Oh, you're… Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry, Dusknoir sir! Please, come in!"

After Diglett said that, the entire Guild was thrown into a tizzy. Tim and I stood there, confused. But we followed everyone down to BF2.

Dusknoir's body was mostly black, with two almond shaped eye-like markings and a yellow horizontal zigzag line on his torso which can open like a mouth (creating the illusion of a face). Dusknoir has a gray, cylinder-shaped head with another yellow band near the top and a single black glaring eye with a yellow iris and a red pupil. The tattered fringes of Dusknoir's lapels converge into a shawl collar on its upper chest. Dusknoir had a ghostly tail rather than feet, and Dusknoir has a yellow antenna on top of its head. **(note- thank you Wikipedia for this description)**

Dusknoir was apparently a very famous explorer. Bolt from the blue. Arrived on the scene not long after I had joined the guild. That was Sunflora's description, anyway.

"Has he been here before?" I asked.

"No. That's why Diglett wasn't able to figure out who he was when he arrived."

"Then why is Wigglytuff being so friendly?" Tim asked.

"You know Wigglytuff well enough by now. That's how he always is."

"Good point," I said. Wigglytuff and Dusknoir looked towards the rest of the guild.

"Guild apprentices! This is the great explorer Dusknoir. I know that you all probably have some questions for him, but please don't give him too much trouble."

"Wigglytuff, you flatter me," Dusknoir said. Modesty- a good quality. "But I don't know if I would be able to answer all of your questions."

"And above all, please don't embarrass us here at the guild by asking for autographs!" Chatot said.

"If it is autographs you want, then I would be happy to oblige," Dusknoir said. "I will be staying here in Treasure Town while I am conducting some research. Please, feel free to ask me anything and I will answer you to the best of my abilities." He looked strait at me. My heart went all a-flutter. He seemed to smile, nodded and left.

I felt weak at the knees. He was a truly kind Pokemon. A thought occurred to me.

"Tim, should I ask Dusknoir about my special ability?" I asked him.

Tim looked at me and then got it. "Eh, it's your question. Your ability."

Chatot came up to us. "Before you two- I mean three get out there today, I would like you to run a quick errand for me."

"Yes, Chatot sir?" Tim said.

"I would like you guys to ask the Keckleon if they have any plans to stock perfect apples. It's a burden to send out teams to go collect them."

"Awww, Chatot!" I said. "We were there just yesterday! Why didn't you tell us that we were almost out?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. And besides, your failure last time was a slightly traumatic incident for me. Please understand," Chatot said.

"Yes sir," I said. He was still holding that against us?

We got Myuki out of the café and headed out into town. Treasure Town was actually steadily growing. Another two shops had opened up recently- Electivire's Link shop and Chansey's Day-care. Electivire could link moves so that we could use them one after the other in quick succession. Chansey would take care of any eggs that we got from a job.

We got to the store, and Dusknoir was there. It seemed that he was having a wonderful conversation with the Keckleon Brothers. Dusknoir turned to us. "Ah, you two are from the guild, if I'm not mistaken?"

"Yes sir!" I said.

"We're Team Diamond!" Tim said. Dusknoir smiled and nodded.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said. OMG- palpitare cor puellae! (What the heck? Why am I thinking in Latin? I don't even know any Latin!)

"Well, team Diamond, what have you come to buy today?"

"Nothing yet. We came on an errand for Chatot to see if you guys are going to be planning on stocking perfect apples any time soon,"

"Oh, for Wigglytuff? I'm sorry to say it, but no…"

"Well, that's that," I said. We all stood there in an awkward silence until the Marill and Azurill ran past.

"Hi Tim and Alex and Myuki and Misters Keckleon!" Said Marill. "And Mister Dusknoir, too!"

"Hi!" said Azurill. He looked up at me with his big blue eyes…

"Uh, hi there," I said quietly. Azurill still had a crush on me. Still, after several months! "So, what are you doing?"

"Well, you remember that item we were looking for? The water float?"

"Sure… Oh! That? Yeah,"

"Well, we heard that someone saw it on the beach, so we're heading down there now,"

"Well, good luck with that," I said. But we were being watched.

"Woa-ho ho… A juicy tidbit…"

"Let's go tell boss, heh he,"…

"Well, our whole business is buying and selling, and I've never heard of a water float,"

"Well, we've gotta go," said Marill. And with that, the two little kids ran off.

"Such nice little kids," Dusknoir said.

I smiled and looked up at him with the sweetest smile I could manage. "The last Pokemon who said that was an outlaw who kidnapped Azurill. We captured him and sent him to jail,"

"Amazing!"

"Yeah, that was when we just started out, too!"

"Alex, we have to go," Tim said. We started to walk away, but Myuki didn't follow us. I looked back to her. She was just standing there, looking at Dusknoir. I pulled a tail feather gently. That startled her out of her stupor and she followed us back to the guild. Dusknoir was staring at us as we went. I couldn't figure out if he was staring at Myuki or at me… I could tell Myuki liked him a lot…

We told Chatot, and he didn't seem very happy about it at all. He dismissed us with a sigh. After that, we went back into town, but Dusknoir was gone. We prepared for our expedition to Mount Horn, then returned to the guild. It was still mid-morning, though.

"Well, should we go ahead and move out now?" I said. "If we do start now, we could make it home by morning tomorrow. What do you guys think?"

"Let's go now and get this one over with," said Myuki.

"Why, so you can come and spend more time with-"

"Shut up, and don't say it," She said irritably. Oh yeah, she definitely had something going for Dusknoir. But he seemed too old for her. I mean, Myuki is like 18 or 19, and Dusknoir is like in his 30's.

"Well then, let's go," I said. So we left for the mountains. We traveled through the rest of the day, through the night, and eventually got back in the early hours of the morning. Chatot welcomed us in and sent us to bed. He told Loudred to let us sleep a while before getting us up.

_I shouldn't have trusted them. I should have wiped their memories when I had the chance. Who knew that someone would come so soon after they left?_

_Uxie thought back to what the thief had said. "No one told me of this place. I've known about this place for... A very long time, let's say... Regardless, I am taking the Third Time gear..." _

"HEY, TEAM DIAMOND! GET UP, YOU HAVE VISITORS!"

"Oh Arceus, already?"

"THEY'VE BEEN WAITING FOR AN HOUR, SO I'D SUGGEST YOU HURRY UP,"

"Ugh, I'll go," I said. Tim and Myuki had already fallen back asleep. Myuki had fallen asleep in Summer's bed. I wonder if Summer had been home last night.

I walked out into the sub-level 1, and to my surprise, Marill and Azurill were there.

"Ok, I still need to catch up on some sleep, so please make it fast," I said tiredly.

Marill handed me a piece of paper. I stared at it blankly. "I can't read," I said, discovering this for the first time.

"It's a ransom note," Marill said, "Someone took the Water float to Amp-plains. I tried to go there, but there are a lot of electric-type Pokemon. Even worse, there are a lot of monster houses there. I've tried several times, but I can't make it through…"

"Ok, no problem," I said. "I'll get Tim and we'll head out there,"

"But didn't you say that you just got back from a big exploration?"

"Eh, who needs sleep…" I said. I went back to the bedroom and tried to get Tim up. He tried to slap me away, so I left him alone. I wasn't going to bring Myuki to a place with a lot of electric types. I grabbed my ribbon and my bag and headed out to the Amp plains. I forgot to tell anyone that I was leaving. Big mistake.

The first part of the plains was easy except for the fact I was half-asleep. Once I got to the half way point, I was so tired. I curled up and fell asleep for a few minutes…

"Has anyone seen Alex?" Tim asked, running through the town. Myuki followed close behind him, asking the same question. They reached Keckleon's wares, where Dusknoir and the Marill and Azurill brothers were.

"Have you seen Alex?" Tim asked worriedly. He had woken up and she was gone. No one seemed to know where she was.

"No"

"No"

"No"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Where?"  
"Um, I think that she went to Amp planes… We found a ransom note for our water float on the beach, so Alex said she would go get it for us,"

"Wait, did you say Amp plains?" Dusknoir asked. He seemed to search his brain for a few seconds, then he started to rush off, saying, "But this is the season for-"

"Wait for us!" Tim shouted, started to run off of after the famous explorer. Myuki thought to herself some thoughts about Dusknoir, and then followed the other two.

I woke up to a Pichu sniffing my face. I reeled back and hit my head on the Kangashkan rock. Ow… The Pichu looked at me with his big brown eyes He reminded me of Azurill. He crawled on my head and gave it a kiss.

"Hey little guy, what are you doing?" I said. He bent over and looked me in the eye, but he didn't say anything. "Are you lost?" I asked.

Nothing.

"Do you want some food?"  
He nodded his head vigorously.

"Want to come along?"

He nodded his head slowly, and then spoke for the first time. "There is danger ahead. I'll come with you and help you," He sounded very similar to Azurill, maybe a little lower, a little older, more mature, hardened by a life of dungeon crawling.

"Ok then," I said. I started walking, but Pichu stayed on my head. "Are you going to get down?"

"No," He said.

"So you're going to stay on my head?"

"Yep. I can get the best vantage point for Thunder shock from up here. And it's a good platform to get going for Volt-tackle,"

"Volt-Tackle?"

"Yeah, it's a special move that only Pichu can learn when certain conditions are met."

"Well… Do you have a name?"

"Pokemon around here call me several things, like shrimpy, jolty, and the one that I like the most- Sikyatavo."

"God-bless-you,"

"No, that's my name, Sikyatavo!"

"That's a little hard to say. Big name for a little guy,"

"What's your name? And what are you?"

"Alex, and I think I'm a Vulpix. I'm a part of an exploration team called Team Diamond,"

"Where's everyone else? Are you on a team on your own?"

"No, that's not it. I've come here for a specific item that two little boys from my town had stolen from them."

"That's nice. But where are the other Pokémon on your team?"

"Oh, they're still asleep back at the guild probably. We just got back from a huge exploration to Mount Horn."

"Do they know you're here?"

I then realized I hadn't told anyone except Marill and Azurill where I had gone. Everyone was probably looking for me. I'd be back soon, I told myself. Just let me get this done.

"Probably not," I said, returning my attention ahead. "But we'll be back soon any way. And if we do get stuck, we can wait until Tim and Myuki come and find us,"

"Who are they?"

"Tim is the one who found me on the beach in the first place, and Myuki joined our team when hers was disbanded."

"Wait, Myuki? As in, the Myuki? From team Aven?"

"Yeah…"

Sikyatavo was quiet for several seconds, then said, "Well, If you guys are good enough for Myuki to join, then you are certainly good enough for me,"

"What do you mean?"

"I want to be a part of Team Diamond!"

I thought over this for several seconds. I had no idea what Tim would think. But then Sikyatavo leaned over again and looked at me with his big brown eyes.

"Please?" he said. That sealed it for me. At that moment, I really didn't care what Tim thought anymore.

I replied, "I'd have to clear it with Tim to make it official, but I'd love to have you with us on Team Diamond,"

"Yay!" he shouted. He did a little jig on my head then sat down again. He grabbed a hold of my hair and started tugging it in different ways. I was forced to follow his motions. Eventually, he had me running at a full gallop.

I was getting tired. We had run up several flights of stairs. Eventually, I stopped despite Sikyatavo's pulling.

"Come on! We have to hurry! Manectric will flip if he spots us his territory!"

"Woah wait, what? Manectric?"

"Uh, yeah, he's kind of like a big boss type dude. He and his-"

But Sikyatavo was cut short by a tremendous lightning bolt that crashed near us. I jumped away in fear, but Sikyatavo jumped down and looked around.

"We're getting close to his place. We need to be very careful..."

Another lightning bolt was hurled down at us and this time the light didn't return. I looked around in fear. Sikyatavo pressed up against my leg. He was breathing heavily and I could tell he was very frightened. He suddenly got a glazed look in his eyes and looked up at me.

"They're here..." he said in an eerie tone.

(Think about the horror movie Poltergeist. Like that.)

"Stop trying to scare me, Sikyatavo," I said, backing up against a wall. Then I called out, "Who are you?"

"Didn't Sikyatavo tell you? We are the Manectric and Electrike tribe."

"There's no use hiding," said another voice.

"It only makes it easier for us."

"More fun,"

I knew that it was pointless, so I went and stood out in the open. Sikyatavo had crawled back onto my head and was attempting to hide under my hair. "Show yourselves!" I said as loudly as I could.

"Of course, for such a pretty little... um... what are you?"

"Show yourselves and maybe I'll tell,"

"We only want to know what we'll be up against,"

"Take a wild guess," I spat. I had noticed shadows starting to dart in and out between the columns.

"I guess Dark," said the Manectric that appeared from behind one of the pillars. He was impressive with age and several old battle scars. His golden mane had faded and rusted into bronze, a tell tale sign of his dominance. "Coming here is the last mistake you'll ever make," he said, approaching me. I noticed that several Electrike had started to circle us in view. I tensed, waiting for someone to make the first move. I tried to call out to them to stop, that I didn't want to hurt them, but they didn't listen to me.

"Please, at least let Sikyatavo go," I said. Manectric looked at me and nodded. Sikyatavo jumped down but stayed.

"No!" he said. "I'm going to stay with you until the end. That's what team members do!" He smiled and looked up at me. I smiled back, but then one of the Electrike started attacking. The battle began.

In turn, each of the Electrike would send out some sort of spark that I could easily jump out of the way of. I decided to keep them thinking that I was a dark type, so I used faint attack one of the Electrike. He whimpered and limped off. Meanwhile, poor Sikyatavo had been surrounded. Luckily, a quick discharge sent the group packing. I continued to use only faint attack and Sikyatavo did his best with spark and discharge. Eventually only Manectric was left, and he didn't seem all too pleased.

"This is the part where I completely destroy you," he sinisterly said. Without warning, a huge bolt of thunder dropped out of the sky. There was no dodging it.

After the attack, I fell to a heap on the ground. I knew that I was paralyzed. I couldn't move at all. The only thing that I could do was watch as Sikyatavo did his best to protect me. I closed my eyes. I couldn't watch...

Then something really unexpected happened. Manectric suddenly fell to the ground, shaking with fear. I tried to look around, but every small movement made me cringe in agony. I faintly heard voices somewhere, and then I realized someone was trying to feed me a heal seed. I sighed and shuddered as the seed took its effect. I tried to stand up, but instead, I found I was being picked up. I opened my eyes and looked up.

"Please don't do that again," Tim said. "You're going to be the death of me," He held me close and I knew he wasn't going to be letting go any time soon. I just sat there, soaking up his love.

Dusknoir was negotiating with Manectric and his clan. They brought over the water float. Some Pokemon had brought it to them and asked them to keep it for them. After Manectric said this, he and his clan left. Dusknoir returned to us and explained.

"Around this time of year, thunder-storms lash this place quite often. Manectric and his clan find this to their liking and camp out here around this time. They are all very territorial. This was made even worse at one time when they were attacked here several years ago. It was made a law of the clan to strike first for fear of being beaten."

"Well no wonder they wouldn't listen to me," I said as Tim released me. "By the way, I probably wouldn't be here without the help of Sikyatavo,"

"God-bless-you,"

"No, that's his name! Hey, where are you?"

Sikyatavo appeared from behind a rock. He ran over to me and clung to my leg, sucking his thumb like a baby.

"He reminds me of Azurill," Tim said, looking at him. He bent down until he was about level with Sikyatavo. "Thank-you for saving my friend," He said with a smile. "Is there any way I can repay you?"

"Yes..." Sikyatavo said. He looked up at me and I nodded. He turned back to Tim and said, "I want to join Team Diamond!"

Tim smiled and nodded. "Of course you can!" he said. Sikyatavo gave a little whoop of joy and hopped on top of my head again. He seemed really happy. I would be too if I was just accepted into an elite exploration team.

Dusknoir looked around for several seconds, then said, "Well, I believe that you were set up." I turned to look at him. "Someone knew that you would eventually make it to this point only to find Manectric and his clan. Isn't that right?" he said, turning around. After only a few seconds, someone said, "Chaw haw ha! Well, it's no use hiding if you know we're here,"

The members of Team Skull jumped out in front of us. I, along with everyone else, took a fighting stance as Dusknoir said, "Should we finish this now?"

"If it were Team Diamond minus that kid and bird brains, sure. But against all 5 of you?"

Dusknoir started to advance on team Skull. Skuntank started to look rather nervous, so he said, "Let's go boys. Better skedaddle,"

The made their rather hurried departure. Dusknoir seemed to smile a little bit and then said, "Well, they seem to be masters at, err, running away... There is no more reason to stay here. Let us leave with the water float and get it back to Marill and Azurill,"

So that's what we did. The entire way back though, I was masking the pain that still coursed through my body.

We made it back to treasure town without too much difficulty. Marill and Azurill were elated to have their item back. After meeting Marill and Azurill, I had Myuki take Sikyatavo to Chimecho for registration.

"Completely marvelous," Said one of the Keckleon brothers. "This is the second time you have helped out those brothers,"

Tim, Dusknoir, the Keckleon brothers and I were standing in front of their store talking. I was still in a little bit of pain, but it wasn't as severe as earlier. I would probably go see Chimecho after this to check me out.

"And the first time when you save little Azurill from that dastardly Drowzee, you were able to pin-point his location so quickly,"

"Well, I wish that it were as Keckleon tells it," I said. "But that's not exactly what happened,"

"That's right. You happened to see it in a dream," continued Tim. Dusknoir looked at me and said,

"What did you just say? You saw it in a dream? Did you touch something and then see a vision?"

I was rather startled. "Yeah," I said. "Do you know what it was?"

"Of course! That was the Dimensional Scream!"

Tim and I looked at each other. He nodded as I turned back to Dusknoir. "Dusknoir, sir, I would like to ask you some questions. Would you mind coming down to the beach with Tim and I?"

He agreed and the three of us headed down to the beach. When we got there, I told Dusknoir everything.

"I woke up here on this beach with two memories. Tim found me and we started the Exploration Team Diamond."

"I found her right around here," Tim said, digging into the sand with his foot. "She helped me get my Relic Fragment back from the same thugs who you met earlier, Team Skull. They harbor a grudge against us. Well, especially me, but both of us in general."

Dusknoir seemed to think this all over for a little while, then he asked me, "What do you remember?"

"I have the memory of my name," I told him, "And I can also remember that I was at one time or another a human,"

"Human?" Dusknoir said, reeling back slightly. "Did you say that you remember being a h-human?"

"Yep..."

Dusknoir was quiet for a very long time. He was looking out to sea, thinking. Eventually, he asked me, "And what did you say your name is?"

"Alex," I said simply. Dusknoir turned back to look at the sea. "Does that name have any meaning to you?" I asked.

"No, it doesn't" Dusknoir said. I noticed that he seemed to be smiling slightly. Was he hiding something? "But I can tell you more about the Dimensional Scream ability. It is unknown how this trait is acquired, but a very special few humans and Pokemon have this ability. Probably about one in several thousand,"

"Cool. Someone else at the Guild has this ability, too,"

"Summer, yes, I know. She asked me about it also. Besides that, the Dimensional Scream is activated every once in a while whenever the one with the ability touches something. Images and sound slice the barriers of time itself to manifest as visions of the past or the future,"

"Sweet," Tim said. The three of us sat there in a somewhat awkward silence until we all heard the rustling of wings above us. At first I thought it was Myuki, but instead, it was an entire flock of Pelipper. They all were heading out in different directions.

"I wonder what all the commotion is?" I thought out loud. We were to find out soon enough.

"Hey guys! I've been looking for you all!" said Bidoof. He seemed tired and out of breath. "The call's gone out to all guild members to return at once! It's an emergency! All the members of Wigglytuff's guild are to return at once upon hearing this announcement!"

"I'll come too," said Dusknoir as Tim and I followed Bidoof back to the guild. Tim and I nodded our approval and the four of us entered the guild.


	12. Chapter 11, Grovyle the Thief

Chapter 11

Grovyle the Thief

Every member of the guild was crowded around the outlaw notice board. Everyone was shouting. There were some Pokemon there that I didn't even know were a part of the guild. One was Team Emerald (Erik and Taylor, a Pikachu and a Torchic. They were such a cute couple) and then there was team pieplease which had 4 full time members: Roy the Turtwig, Strause the Squirtle, David the Riolu, and Dexter the Pikachu. Strause hated poor Roy. I don't know why.

There were several other teams beside these two (Such as Team Sparkles run by Ally the Skitty, Sir Peanut the Pikachu, and a Hippowdon named Mamas. I don't even want to know.) And they were all from other guilds in the area and had come at the first call.

I eventually made my way up to Chatot and asked what was going on. "In a moment you'll see," Chatot murmured. "Go stand with the others and we'll begin,"

Tim and I ended up standing next to a young Treeko and her Croconaw lover. Basil and Grant of team Kokoro, which meant life and spirit. That's what Basil claimed, anyway. Chatot started fluttering his wings to get everyone's attention. All the exploration teams faced Chatot as he said, "Thank all of you for coming. We have an announcement to make. Another Time Gear has been stolen!"

The entire room was thrown into a tizzy. Several Pokemon were asking where it from, but Chatot had the answer. He didn't seem to want to tell. Looking at the Wigglytuff guild members, he said, "I am sorry to say it, but…"

"Where was it?" Bidoof asked. Then I realized where it was.

"It was at the lake, wasn't it?" I asked quietly. Several of the other explorers looked at me with quizzical expressions on their faces. They were probably thinking something like "what lake is the mutant talking about?" Yep, that's what I am. A mutant.

Chatot nodded his head at me. "Alex you're right. Everyone, the Time Gear was at Fogbound Lake…"

"Wait, didn't you all just go there? You said that you couldn't find anything, that your mission had ended in failure, is that not right?" Dusknoir asked. Everyone was asking similar questions.

"We gave our word to Uxie, so we couldn't tell anyone, and that included you, Dusknoir sir," said Wigglytuff. "I'm really sorry."

"We all are," Said Summer from across the room. She and Quinton had been busy lately.

"It's ok. But we have found out who is behind all of this mess. According to Uxie's witness statement, we now have a pretty good idea of who the thief is and what he looks like," Chatot said. He held up a large poster. The picture was of a Pokémon. I heard Basil gasp. "This Pokémon is Grovyle. He is the one who has been stealing the time gears."

I looked at Basil. She was fuming. "Just because you are from the same evolutionary line doesn't say anything,"

"Yeah but he gives all of us a bad name."

I looked back at the poster. He seemed to be a nice looking guy. But I should know better than to judge just on appearances. He had a long scar that ran from his brow ridge to his upper lip. Other than that, it looked like he was just another Grovyle. I wondered if he had any name, like most of the rest of us. Why would I ever think that?

"Grovyle is now of prime importance. We need to find this criminal-"

Suddenly, the ground started to shake. Most of the explorers started to freak out, but the Wigglytuff guild members knew exactly what was happening.

"YOOOOM-TAAAAH!" He shouted. He scanned everyone assembled in the room, then continued, "Young explorers, listen to me. Grovyle the Thief must be caught at all costs! Who's with me?"

"Yeah!" everyone shouted.

"Ok, guys, I know that all of you are riled up about this, but it is getting late. Each of you need to return to your own guild."

"Chatot, don't we have enough rooms?" I asked.

"Well, yes. We do."

"It's getting too late for us from the Medicham Guild to head home," said one of the other explorers. "Do you know how far to the north we are?"

Everyone else in the room started murmuring about how far their own guild was. There were apprentices from Shrifty's Guild, Dragonite's Guild, and Milotic's Guild for the elite under-water explorers (a water-type exclusive guild. Some examples included Quagsire, Vaporeon, and Corsola.)

"All right, all right!" said Chatot. "We can board all of you for the night. In the mean-time, our cook, Chimecho, will prepare a good meal for all of you,"

"I'm going to need some help in the kitchen, though. I need anyone with any culinary skills to follow me," said Chimecho. I saw Ally, a Misdreavus, and a Glameow follow Chimecho back into the kitchen. A new wave of pain reminded me to go ask Chimecho to check me out.

"After dinner," I thought to myself. Tim nudged me and we headed over to where Myuki and Sikyatavo were standing.

"Did you get registered?" I asked the Pichu.

"All registered!" he said, giving me a big smile. "But I do have a question. What if you have to guide someone? A team can only have 4 members in a dungeon at one time, right?"

"Well, we'll see about the type advantages and go from there." I said. I had thought of that before and that was what I had decided.

Dinner was absolutely delicious. Almost everyone was asking for doggie-bags to take home for their Guild masters.

"If all of you come and visit us, then I'll make it again," said Chimecho.

After dinner, everyone was sorted into all of the different rooms. I limped into Chimecho and Sunflora's room.

"Hey, Chimecho?" I asked. "Do you have any sort of medical knowledge? I had a rather rough battle this after-noon, and the first person- I mean Pokemon- that I thought of."

"Let me look," she said. "I know enough for some first-aid, like binding a cut and minor things like that, but if it's anything serious I can't help you."

After several minutes of silence as Chimecho probed through my fur, she said, "Well, you seem to have some major bruising pretty much everywhere, so you will probably be sore for quite a while. But what I find intriguing is the scarring on your fore-legs."

"Is it from today?"

"No. It seems to be much older. Several months at least."

"Other than that, am I ok?"

"Yep!"

I looked around and noticed Sunflora writing in a journal. I went over to her and looked at it. She closed it and shook her head violently. "No, no! No looking!"

"Sheesh…." Was all I said as I left the room. Once out in the hallway, I bumped into Basil. She had been crying.

"As I said," she said, wiping a tear from her eye, "He gave us all a bad name," Basil shoved past me and returned to her borrowed room. I just looked after her and then returned to my room, completely tired. I was asleep before I hit the hay…

The next morning, I awoke refreshed, though still rather sore. Every guild member assembled in the main room with Dusknoir, Chatot, Wigglytuff, and some other Pokémon that I assumed were other Guild-masters. Sure enough, there was a Shrifty, Milotic, Medicham, and Dragonite.

"Everyone, may we have your attention!" said Dusknoir. We all faced forward and listened to the five guild masters talk.

"As everyone knows, Grovyle has been stealing the Time Gears," Said Milotic. Her voice was soft and sort of bubbly. It reflected her attitude, too. She seemed to be in good spirits despite the grave situation. She also had several wet towels wrapped around her mid-section to keep her wet.

"This must be stopped!" shouted Shrifty. He seemed to have the attitude of a drill-sergeant mixed with a karate sensei.

Medicham said, "We have plotted out courses for each of you. Every 2 person team will be paired with another 2 person team."

"I have all of the groups here!" said Wigglytuff. He started rattling off names of teams. Team Sapphire was paired with a team called KIT-KAT, a Meowth and a Skitty named Kit and Kat respectively. The minute they saw Quinton, they started hitting on him. I rolled my eyes.

"Diamond and Kokoro," Wigglytuff continued. Tim and I pushed our way to Basil and Grant as Wigglytuff gave us our assignment. "You are to explore the Northern Desert,"

"Got it," Said Basil. She paused for a moment, then turned to me. "The northern desert has mostly ground types with Cacturne here and there."

"It is also raked by vicious sand storms," Dusknoir said. "Please be careful, you four,"

"Thank you, sir," Grant said, giving Dusknoir a small salute. Basil looked up at him adoringly. She definitely liked- if not loved- Grant the Croconaw. They were such a cute couple. Kind of like me and Tim. Wait, what did I just say?

As we were leaving, I crashed into another explorer. She only came up to my shoulder, so I actually knocked her down. I stretched out my paw and helped her up.

"I'm Jenny," she said. I looked at her. She was the first Vulpix other than myself I had ever seen.

"I'm part of team PVP," she continued. "It's me, Pippin the Piplup and Jazz the Ponyta. Who are you?"

I could tell she was going to try and drag this conversation out, so I tried to cut it short by saying, "I'm Alex. Listen, Jenny. We have to go. I'll catch you later, ok?"

"You're a Vulpix like me!" she said. "You're a lot taller than me. I've never seen a Vulpix as big as you before. You're coat is really pretty. I like-"

"Jenny! Please, we have to go. I'll find you later and we can talk then, ok?"

"Yep!" she said. She skipped off with Pippin, Jazz, and a Quagsire from Milotic's guild to go to the Happy Prairie. At this rate, there were exploration teams going to all corners of the globe!

The four of us got ready to go. Basil and I went to Kangashkan storage while Tim and Grant went to the store and the bank. I asked Basil her opinion of Tim.

"He seems like a good kid," she said. It was then I realized how much older she was than me. I was the equivalent of about 14 or so, and Basil was probably about 18 or 19. Maybe older, for all I know. "Besides that, I think he likes you,"

My heart skipped a beat as she continued, "I consider myself to be a good judge of Pokémon. I'd definitely say to try and build on it. He'll probably deny anything you say about love or anything like that. Just let it go naturally. He'll bring it up."

Kangashkan started laughing. "Oh, Alex. I know of what happened at the Fog bound lake. I heard that Tim kissed you. Hmm, honey, if you could see your face right now…" She smiled good-naturedly, and then said, "Love will find you eventually. That's all I have to say about the matter. Is that all you want to take out?"

"What? Oh, yes ma'am," I said. I was thinking about what these two had said. Maybe they were right. Let it find me.

"What do you think Grant and Tim are talking about?" I asked as we crossed the stream. Tim and Grant were waiting at the cross roads for us.

"Probably the same thing as what we just talked about," Basil said with a slight laugh. The four of us met up and we headed out into the world beyond.

It took us about a day to reach the desert, so we had to stop for the night at another smaller town north of Treasure town called Edjot. Most towns had started when a guild had popped up in the area, but Edjot was more of just a Keckleon's store and a few tents set up here and there. We met another team there called team Shine which had a Buneary named Calypso, a Larvitar named Fortissimo, and a Swablu named Cloud. They were a relatively young team and had been assigned to explore with a Gliscor from Dragonite's guild.

We rolled out our sleeping mats and were soon asleep, waiting for morning to come…

_I dreamed of Grovyle. It seemed that he really _would_ have been a nice guy if his life hadn't gotten so messed up._

_ "Mom died, sister ran away," he was saying. "Poor old Grandma and Grandpa tried to control me, but I ran away. Broke poor Grandma's heart…"_

I awoke with a start. It didn't even make any sense. The dream was starting to fade, anyway, and it was soon forgotten. We got up and left and headed for the Northern Desert. Once we got there, Basil took the lead. Tim was next, then me, and then Grant brought up the rear. We fared well until we hit the first sandstorm. Every few steps, each of us would take a little damage from the biting sand of the desert. It would sting for a second or two, and then we'd be fine again. We had to keep moving for fear of being buried in the forever shifting sands.

We came to the end of the dungeon. There was a huge desert stretched out in front of us.

"Be careful, kids," Grant said. "Quick sand swirls here,"

We all looked forward. Other than the quick sand traps, there were only shifting dunes of powdery sand.

"Well, there's nothing here," Timothy said. I wasn't really listening. I was feeling the strangest sensation in my gut. I had felt it before… And then it hit me.

I had been here before, too.

Then I realized Tim was shouting at me. I looked at him like 'Huh? What? What did I miss?'

"You kind of spaced out there for a little while there," he said. Smiling, he wrapped his arm around me and said, "C'mon, Alex. There's nothing here. Let's get home," and with that, Basil, Grant, and Tim started to leave. I looked back at the desert, shook my head, and followed the rest of them home.

(The clouds parted over the arid area! XD)

When we got back to Edjot, Basil and Grant headed west to go back to their guild.

"We'll meet again soon," Basil said. She gave me a nod and a wink, and then the two of them were gone. Tim and I returned to Wigglytuff's Guild and waited everyone else's return…

"SQUAAAKK? NO ONE FOUND ANYTHING AT ALL?"

"Absolutely nothing," Everyone said in unison. Everyone seemed rather bummed out except for Bidoof. He seemed neutral, but I could tell he was hiding his emotions. What emotion he really had, I was unsure of. I would find out soon enough.

"Yup, yup…" Bidoof said. "But Crystal Cave was so beautiful… I couldn't help but pick one up…"

Everyone stared at him. "When did you pick that up? I was with you the whole time and I never saw you pick anything up!" Sunflora scolded.

"Bidoof," Dugtrio said, burrowing his way over to him. "You had the nerve to get something completely unrelated to the mission. Furthermore, everyone has failed their missions, and-"

"Get off his back Dugtrio," Tim said. I looked at him. He was rather angry, or so it seemed. "So what if he picked up a rock? Last time I picked up a rock, it ended up solving the mystery of Fogbound Lake. And nobody says anything bad about my home."

Woah. Tim's home? He used to live in Crystal Cave?

"Please, everyone, stop arguing!" Dusknoir said. For the first time, he seemed flustered. "In truth, we haven't failed. We know that Time Gears are in none of those places now…"

"Yeah, we've failed," Corphish said glumly. Everyone was quiet for several seconds, and then Wigglytuff said, "Well, we must think of other places that a Time gear would be,"

"Exactly," Chatot said. "Until we have decided on another location, you are free to continue on your own investigations,"

"Not today, though," Wigglytuff said. "It is getting too late today. Besides, Chimecho has made a nice dinner for everyone," Wigglytuff gave a small smile to Chimecho, and she started to blush.

"I'll go get it set up…" she said, floating off to the kitchen. In about a few minutes, we were invited to the dining hall for dinner.

"Well, that was a waste of a few days," Tim said as we bedded down for the night. "Where did you two go?"

"Midnight Forest," Quinton replied. "Kit and Kat are the most annoying Pokémon I have ever met. No kidding, they were trying to hit on me the entire time. We ended up losing about half of our reviver seeds because of them."

'Well at least some one is interested in you,' is what I wanted to say, but that would have been rude. If I wasn't mistaken though, Quinton liked Summer. I had no idea what she thought of him.

I curled up with my tails covering my nose, thinking. I had the same sensation I had at foggy forest, but what did it mean? I had never been to either of these places in my memory. And there had been a Time Gear at the lake of Foggy Forest. Could there be a secret at the Northern desert, too?

"I'm reading too much into this," I mumbled as I curled up tighter and tried to fall asleep.

The next morning Chatot told us to investigate on our own today. Tim had no idea what to do, and he suggested doing a job today. I wanted to bring up what I had been thinking about the night before, but I kept quiet. We went on a rescue mission to Apple Forest. This time we had both Myuki and Sikyatavo with us, and when we got to the end, we were able to bring back several dozen Perfect Apples. Chatot was impressed, but also slightly angry that we hadn't followed his instructions to investigating the time gear theft.

By the next morning, still no one had found anything. Chatot told us to continue the search.

"Tim, there's something that I should have told you a while ago…" I said when Chatot dismissed us. Tim turned to me.

"I'm listening,"

"Well yesterday, while we were at the Quick Sand pits, I-I felt something…"

"Uh, like what? What kind of feeling? Like a Dimensional Scream? You were phased out there for a while there, and-"

"Tim! Listen to me! I had the same sensation that I had at Fogbound Lake!"

"And that was…"

"Tim, I think I've been to the arid area before I lost my memory!"

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go back out there!"

"There's not much time, though. The trip there would take too long. We need to do double time."

"Or you can ride me," Myuki said, flying down the hatch and landing next to us. Her feathers glittered slightly as she continued, "Wings are better than legs any day. I could carry you two at maximum, and besides, Sikyatavo would be weak against the ground types that are there."

Tim and I looked at each other and nodded. As quickly as we could, we packed up our bags and climbed on Myuki back. But then Sikyatavo came up to us.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Ground type dungeon, Sikyatavo. I'm really sorry, buddy. Next time,"

He nodded and asked, "What do you want me do then?"

"Um, go train with Sensei Marowak." Was Tim's reply. And with that, Myuki took off.

Myuki was right when she said wings were faster than legs. Instead of 2 whole days of walking, Myuki's flight was about 4 hours. We landed at the quick sand pits and Tim and I hopped down. Myuki looked around and gave a small shudder.

"I like the sky so much better," she said.

I could still faintly feel the sensation in my gut that I had been here before. But looking out over the dunes, there was nothing there but sand and quick sand.

"Wait," I said, thinking. "If all there is, is sand and quick sand… Then that's the key to this mystery!"

"What do you mean, Alex?" Tim said.

I had a crazy idea. And it was pretty much our only option.

"Tim, back at Fog Bound lake, the only thing in our path was the Statue. Here, the only thing in our path is the quick sand pits."

"So… do we throw a glowing rock into the Quick sand?" Tim said. Myuki laughed.

"Not rocks- us," I said. Myuki stopped laughing abruptly.

"I am NOT going to jump into a quick sand pit. Not on your life- not on mine, either."

"Then Alex and I will go," Tim said.

"Wait, you think-"

"What, you don't trust yourself? I do. Remember when we were just starting out? On our first exploration, you had the Dimensional Scream? I trusted you that time too."

We both turned back towards the quick sand pits. "Myuki, can you please stay here?"

"I'd love to," she said. She perched on a near-by rock. Tim and I walked toward the swirling pit.

"Ready?"

"I'm ready," I replied. We jumped. And we sank. I felt the grainy sand pull us down, down, down… I couldn't breathe… The sand was filling my nose, my mouth, my eyes, my ears… and then we fell. I had the wind knocked out of me. I laid there on my back for a while. Eventually Tim appeared over me.

"Alex, are you ok?" he said. I stared blankly back at him and then nodded. He helped me sit up. I shook my head and sneezed a couple times. The sand was falling from up above.

"Myuki, can you hear me?" Tim yelled.

Faintly we could hear her yell, "Yeah, but only faintly… Are you ok?"

"Yeah! We're going now! Take care!"

The dungeon had 2 parts to it, just like the Steam Cave. When we got to the bottom, we both gasped in awe. It was a beautiful underground lake. There was light, but we couldn't find the source until we looked into the center of the lake.

"There it is," I said, my pulse starting to race. "The time gear…"

But as I said that, the light started to dim. Tim and I looked around. Then we heard a voice that was very similar to Uxie's, but with a feminine touch.

"You who have desecrated this place, leave!" the voice said.

"Where are you?" I said.

The waves of the lake started to ripple and suddenly a Pokémon, similar in form to Uxie, burst forth from the water.

"I am HERE!" She said. Just like Uxie, she had a blue body with two long fan-tipped tails. But instead of a yellow head, she had a bright pink one with four or five hair-like dreadlocks.

"I know what you are here for," she hissed, coming close to me. I backed up several steps. "You have come to steal the time gear away, just as you did to my brother Uxie,"

"Woah, Uxie's your brother?" Tim asked. No duh, Tim.

"Wait, who are you?" I asked. She was getting ever closer to me.

"I am Mesprit," she replied, "Guardian of the underground lake. You are not leaving with this Time Gear!" and with that, she started attacking.

Tim took a heavy beating from her psychic type moves, and this was made worse when he got confused. His eyes became rather foggy, his pupils dilated and then shrunk into nothingness. He walked over to a wall and began to bang his head on it. There was only one thing to do.

I threw a sleep seed at him, and it flew right into his mouth. He wavered for a few seconds, and then fell on the ground, asleep.

"How ingenious," Mesprit said, coming over to me. "But it is to no avail!"

She made a rush on me, and I faked left and dodged right. Mesprit crashed into the ground, exasperated. She got back up, fuming. Her eyes started to glow, and I knew that she was preparing a psychic move. Without thinking, I opened my mouth. A huge plume of fire erupted forth, and Mesprit was engulfed in flames. I had just used flame thrower.

Mesprit was on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Mesprit, listen to me," I said, walking over to her. She had some burns on her chest. I pulled a heal seed out of my bag and gave it to her as I continued. "We didn't come to steal the time gears. Honestly,"

"Don't lie to me," she said, starting to nibble the seed. The burns started to fade. "I heard it from Uxie myself that the time gears were stolen!"

"But that wasn't us," I tried to explain. Mesprit tried to sit up, but she groaned. "You've taken a lot of damage Mesprit. Please just rest yourself."

"Well… If it wasn't you who stole the time gears… Who was it?" Mesprit asked.

"That would probably be… me," said the calm voice behind us. A cold shiver ran up my spine as I turned.

It was Grovyle the Thief.

His wanted poster was almost perfect. The only thing that was wrong was that he wasn't seething with evil. He seemed like just a run of the mill guy.

"I'm sorry you two, but I'll be taking the time gear," He said. He glanced around and saw Timothy. "Oh, sorry. You three,"

Timothy was just starting to wake up. Grovyle started to advance on me. I sprung up, ready for another battle.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are Jet, and that is Timothy?" Grovyle said, circling me.

"I don't know what you are talking about," I growled. How had he known Timothy's name?

"Hmm… Well, Senior did say that that wasn't your real name," Grovyle continued. He was calm, cool, and collected.

"I won't let you steal the Time gear," I said, feeling anger welling up within me.

Grovyle sighed and muttered, "I'm sorry," and then with lightning speed and accuracy, struck me down with a quick attack. I was thrown against a pillar, and I was knocked out.

"Dammit, Alex, get up!" Tim said. I struggled to get up, but my back was hurting like crazy. I felt Tim pick me up and sling me over his back.

"We need to get out of here NOW!" I heard Mesprit say. "There is a secret exit over here,"

"Why do we need to get out?" I asked.

"Time is stopping!" Tim shouted I felt him start to run.

"Does that mean that Grovyle-"

"Yeah, he got it," Tim cut me short. He started climbing.

"Where are we going?"

"Up," Mesprit said. "In front of the Quick Sand pits."

That reminded me of something. "What happened to Myuki?" I asked. Tim stopped and then started moving again.

"I don't know. Grovyle probably knocked her out. If she is unconscious, then we can't fly out of here,"

I opened my eyes. It was very dark, but soon I could see light. Mesprit was using Psychic on a rock above us. We crawled out. Myuki was laying on the sand, unconscious, just as Tim had suspected. He set me down and tried to wake her up. After several seconds, she was awake, but still very wobbly.

"Wh-what happened?" she asked, shaking her head. "I was just sitting here, and then the next thing I knew here you are…"

"Grovyle must have knocked you out," Tim said, picking me back up. "It would be too dangerous for you to fly us back home at this rate."

"That, and you two were my maximum weight limit," she said. "Your little friend here would be the straw that breaks the Staraptor's back."

"Then we'll walk," I said. I struggled and got down. "I'm feeling better now Tim. I just had the wind knocked out of me,"

"If you say so…" Tim said. With that, we started walking.

Either we were going really slowly, or time was sped up for us. The days seemed to go twice as fast, the sun raced across the sky. Luckily, we didn't meet up with any other Pokémon.

Eventually, I did start to feel pain again, and it was all over. We stopped on day 4 in a small cave. I slept. I woke up. Tim was talking.

"I think that we are now back in regular time," Tim said. "The day was longer today."

"Well that's nice to hear," Myuki said. I remained silent and laid my head down on my paws. I looked over at Mesprit. She didn't seem to be handling the traveling all that well. I wondered if she had any secret desires like her brother. I didn't have time to ask. I had heard something.

"Someone's coming," I said. Tim went to the entrance of the cave. I heard 2 voices ask,

"Hey, look there!"

"Kid, are you Tim of Team Diamond?"

"Yeah, why?"

I heard one of the voices yell, "Everybody, I found them!"

Several seconds later, a Blastoise and Infernape entered the cave. "We're team Gorgangler," Said the Blastoise. **(Thank you SkulduggeryCain for letting me use your team!)**

"I'm Blaze," said the Infernape, "And that's George."

"Just about every team has been searching for you three," George said.

"Wigglytuff declared a state of minor emergency and hired as many teams as he could find."

"We used to attend Wigglytuff's guild, and we were more than happy to oblige."

I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I felt loved. But a sudden wave of dizziness made me groan in pain.

"We need to get you some medical help," George said. I nodded, tried to stand up, and then I guess I passed out.


	13. Chapter 12, The Only Option

Chapter 12

The Only Option

I awoke at the Guild. Tim was peacefully asleep, slightly snoring. Summer and Quinton were also asleep in the room. I looked out the window. It was just before dawn. I smiled. A thought had just occurred to me. I got up, slowly and painfully, and quietly hobbled out of our room. I pattered down to Loudred's room. You now know exactly what I was about to do.

Gathering the biggest breath I could manage, I shouted into Loudred's ear, "UP AND AT 'EM! IT'S MORNING!"

Loudred freaked out. I was laughing hysterically, Bidoof was crying, Croagunk (What the? This isn't even his room!) was clinging to Corphish, and Corphish was trying to get him off. Other guild members came in and laughed at the funny scene.

"Welcome back, Alex," someone said.

"Glad you're ok," said someone else.

That was pretty much what everyone was saying. Loudred shook his head and for the first time, I heard him whisper.

"Nice to see you, little bud,"

Considering I had just awoken everyone, we had a rather early start. Dusknoir arrived and Tim and I told everyone what had happened.

"I believe that your notion about your perception of time being slowed down is absolutely correct," Dusknoir said when we were done.

Everyone was quiet for about a minute, and then Corphish said, "Well, considering all that took place 5 days ago, Grovyle has probably already stolen the final Time gear, wherever it was,"

My heart sank. "He seems to know exactly where the Time Gears are and how to get to them, too,"

"Please don't give up hope just yet!" Dusknoir said. "There is a legend that I must share with you. So there is Uxie, and Mesprit, but there are three Pokémon that make up the Spiritual world,"

"So you're saying that there is another Pokémon like them?" I asked.

"Yes, the Being of Emotion, Azelf," Dusknoir said.

"Ok, but what does that mean?" Quinton asked.

"Use your melon," Tim said. "If Uxie and Mesprit were both guarding Time Gears at lakes, then don't you think that Azelf would be, too?"

"Oh..." Quinton said, enlightened. For having a huge crush on a genius, he could be quite a dolt sometimes.

"Exactly," Dusknoir said. "Now, also think of this- If I'm not mistaken, you two said that Uxie had alerted Mesprit about the Time Gear theft, correct?"

"Yeah,"

"And of the name Azelf?"

"I had never heard of it before you mentioned it," I said.

Dusknoir nodded and said, "Then there is still some hope! The way I reason it, if Mesprit had said that Azelf had alerted her to the theft, then certainly the Time Gear from Azelf's lake would already be in the hands of that thief. But that is not the case. Besides that, we haven't even received any word of a 5th Time Gear being stolen yet,"

Everyone gave some sort of "Oh, ok, I get it now," or "Now that makes sense,", but then Loudred just had to pop everyone's bubble and say,

"Well, even IF the Time Gear HASN'T been stolen yet, GROVYLE DOES have a big HEAD START on US. PLUS HE KNOWS where it IS,"

Everyone went silent. He was exactly right. We had just lost all hope of stopping Grovyle.

"Well, maybe we do, maybe we don't," Dusknoir said. Turning to Summer, he continued, "But we do have a way of finding out,"

Summer and I smiled and nodded "The Dimensional Scream. Some of those other places that the Exploration teams went could be holding Time Gears, just like the Underground Lake. If we could get like a rock or something from each dungeon, the Dimensional Scream could be activated," She said.

"And I know of one dungeon we already have a sample from," I said, turning. "Hey, Bidoof. Can we borrow your crystal?"

Bidoof blushed and shook his head no. "Nope, sorry. It's my special treasure, like Tim's carved rock that he has,"

"Relic Fragment!" Tim corrected.

"But Bidoof, we aren't going to take it or anything," Summer said, approaching him. "We just need to touch it for a few seconds and see what happens,"

Everyone was looking at Bidoof, pressuring him to let us try. Eventually, he cracked. "Oh, all right. I'll be right back with it," he said, running off to his room. Several seconds later, he was back with a shining purple crystal. He gave it to me and went back to his place. Summer came over to me and placed her paw on the crystal. I was already holding the crystal.

I thought to myself, "Everyone's watching us... I need to concentrate..."

"You two see anything yet?" Chimecho asked. Just as she asked, it started.

I saw a lake with a peninsula on it. Two Pokemon were on the peninsula. I recognized one as Grovyle, and I guessed the other one was Azelf. Azelf seemed to be in pain.

"Now, I'll take it!" Grovyle was saying with a triumphant smirk on his face, "The fifth Time Gear!"

Azelf, still on the ground, said something barely audible, but I could still hear it. "I... I can't let you... Do that... Grovyle..."

The vision ended. I saw Summer gasping for breath, and then shaking her head. She looked at me.

"I saw something, too," she said. "Grovyle, and I think the other one was Azelf."

"That's what I saw too," I said. The two of us described what we had seen. Everyone seemed shocked.

"Golly, all that from touching a rock?" Bidoof said. He came back over and took the crystal from us.

"Well, that Dimensional Scream told us several things," Dusknoir said. "First, you both saw the same thing, which indicates its truthfulness. I have heard of a Dimensional Scream being incorrect because of a misunderstanding, such as an unclear word or something of the such. Secondly, they had a Dimensional Scream, which indicates a Time Gear being present,"

That was Dusknoir's only mistake.

"Wait, it does?" I asked. "I've had Dimensional Screams that have taken place in places that have had no connection with Time Gears what so ever,"

Dusknoir was quiet for several seconds, and then said, "Of course, Alex and Summer. A slip of my tongue,"

"Hey, hey," Corphish said, butting in, "What is a Dimensional Scream?"

"It's a special ability that both Summer and Alex have," Tim said. "It lets them see into the past or future by touching something. Wait, you were with us that one time at Fogbound lake when it was activated for Alex, when she touched the Groudon statue,"

"Oh yeah," he said. Everyone was quiet for a while, and then Croagunk spoke for the first time in this conversation-

"Was the vision one of the past, or of the future?"

My heart skipped a beat. "I don't know... We never know whether it is one of the past or the future... Sometimes we can figure it out, though,"

"Well, in THAT case," Loudred said, "It MAY well have been a vision of the PAST and we are ALREADY too late,"

I bit my lip. "We can't give up just yet, though. We have to see for ourselves to make sure,"

"No, just the rest of us," Chimecho said, coming over to me. "You and Tim still need your rest after your last battle with Grovyle,"

"Tim is fine," I said. "He just got confused and I threw a sleep seed at him so he wouldn't knock himself out,"

"Wait, that's what happened?" Tim asked. I laughed slightly. "I thought I had knocked myself out..."

"And I'll be fine too," I said, ignoring Tim. "I mean, think about it. I got everyone up this morning, right?"

Chimecho laughed, and then she said, "Oh, all right then. You just have to promise me to be careful, you two, ok?"

"Yes ma'am!" Tim and I said in unison.

"Well, apprentices, I guess you should all go get packed up then," Chatot said. Turning to Wigglytuff, he said, "Guild master, if you may..."

"ZZZ... snort... zzz,"

Chatot looked at us all sheepishly. "I suppose he's asleep..."

"Do you think that he's been asleep from the get-go?" Bidoof asked. I smiled. This was the second time he had done that since Tim and I had joined the Guild.

Chatot attempted to wake the Guild Master up. All he got was a shout in the ear.

"GUILD, WE MUST CATCH GROVYLE!"

Chatot squawked and flew back several feet. The entire guild dispersed, and we all got our bags packed.

Bidoof, Sunflora and Dugtrio led the way to Crystal Cave. We all split up into our respective teams. Myuki had opted not to join us this time, but Sikyatavo did accompany us.

"So, Tim," I said about midway through, "This was your home?"

He was quiet for a short time. He didn't smile, but he said, "Yeah. This is where I was born and raised until They came,"

"Who?"

"I'd rather not talk about it now," he said, pushing forward. I kept silent after that, with Sikyatavo perched on my head like the captain of a small black boat.

When we reached the mid-way point, Summer and Quinton were already there.

"Stupid Dimensional Scream isn't working..." Summer said when she noticed us.

"But these crystals are cool," Quinton said. There were three huge crystals protruding from the ground. One was purple, one was orange, and one was green. I went up to the orange one to see if I could get my Dimensional Scream to activate. Boy, was I surprised when the Crystal changed from orange to yellow. I tapped it again and it turned green.

"No kidding!" I said. And then the first wave of dizziness hit me.

"So, there are 3 crystals here," said the first voice.

"Well, duh," said the second. "We need to figure out how to unlock them,"

"I'm on it..."

There was a pause, and then the first voice spoke again, "I just got it... I-I think that... Well it said that we need to change the colors until they are all the same."

"But what color did it say?"

"It didn't say."

"Well, let's think about this... This is the Crystal cave, where Azelf dwelt, right?"

"If our research is correct, then yes it is,"

"Well, each of the Lake-Dwelling beings represented something different. Azelf was the being of Emotion. Emotion is what makes us laugh and cry..."

"Could it be the color of Azelf's spirit? Or the color of cool water like this lake?"

"I don't know. But we're done here. Let's go,"

I shook my head. Everyone was smiling at me. I turned back to the crystal, contemplating what I had just heard. It was vexing. This was the second time I had only heard voices, and the last time was at the Fogbound Lake. I thought I recognized the voices from there, but I couldn't be sure.

I told the others what I had heard.

"Well, we could try all the colors," Quinton suggested.

"That would take too long," I said. I thought for a moment, and then Summer and I had a shared thought-

"The same color as Azelf!" she said. Summer and I went around to each of the crystals, making them all blue. When the final crystal was blue, the ground started to rumble.

"It's unsafe, guys," Sikyatavo said. "Let's back up..."

We followed the youngster's advice and hid behind the Kangashkan rock. When the rumbling stopped, we were met by a beautiful sight. The three crystals had grown and merged together to form a huge door way.

"We did it!" Tim said, giving a little shout of triumph. Quinton, Summer, Tim and I headed towards the door. Sikyatavo didn't follow us. I turned and knew why. I went back to him and squatted down.

"I know you're afraid, and that's ok," I said. "I'm scared too, you know,"

He only nodded.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to,"

"I don't want to," he said. "I would rather stay here and tell the other explorers how to get it. I'm going to stay right here on this rock until someone tells me to get home,"

I smiled and took out my Silver bow. I wrapped it around his neck like a big scarf. "For luck, little buddy," I winked and then headed through the door way.

The first half of the dungeon was easy enough. Tim muttered several times, "Arceus, I lived back up there and I never knew this was down here..."

As we had seen several times, there was a half-way point. By now we knew that whenever there was a half-way point, there would also be an unhappy Pokemon boss at the end. From then on, we continued with extreme caution. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

The end of the lower Crystal Crossing lead out into a large cavern. There was a peninsula that jutted out into the center of a large lake. We saw the familiar glow of a Time Gear shining in the center. I looked closer at the peninsula. Every once in a while, a flash of light would erupt. Azelf and Grovyle were battling.

**(Author's note: And now we get to the part of the story that explains why this is rated T and not K+... hang on to your lunches, people...)**

The four of us ran as fast as we could to the spot where they were battling. We watched in horror as Grovyle struck Azelf down. They were both bleeding from several small cuts.

"And now I can take the Fifth Time Gear," Grovyle said triumphantly. He had a victorious smirk on his face. I would have loved to wipe it right off. But with a slight chill, I realized that I was watching my earlier Dimensional Scream.

"I-I... Can't let you do that... Grovyle..." Azelf said. Grovyle turned sharply.

"How did you know who I am?"

"I heard it from Uxie and Azelf that you were coming, Grovyle the Thief..."

"So that's what I'm called? I suppose it suits me,"

"Grovyle, you are not going to get the Time Gear. I thought that I couldn't possibly lose, but that if I did..." A tremor went through the ground. "That even if it cost me my life, would protect the Time Gear..."

Another, even larger jolt went through the ground. Crystals started jutting up from the surface of the lake. Tim, Summer, Quinton and I had to run to dodge the growing crystals. We made it to the arena-like tip of the peninsula just before another huge crystal came up, blocking the way out. The only way out. Crystals were covering the lake. Access to the Time Gear was impossible.

"Gah..." was all Grovyle was able to say. He turned and noticed us. "Oh, look, company..."

"You'll never... get it..." Azelf mumbled. Summer gently used her vines to move Azelf to the side. The rest of us got into fighting stances. We were ready to fight.

"Well, this seems like an un-fair battle," Grovyle said.

"Yeah, I almost feel sorry for you," I said.

"Well, you shouldn't," Grovyle said. The leaves on his arms started to take on an eerie glow. "Because I am going to do anything to get the fifth Time gear,"

The strangest thing about that battle was that Grovyle was talking to us the entire time, as if we were having a leisurely conversation back at Spinda's Cafe.

Grovyle used Dig right off and erupted beneath Quinton. He never even knew what had hit him. A super-effective move, combined with the fact he landed on his head, resulted in him becoming the first casualty. Quinton was just lying face down on the ground in an awkward position. I whispered, "Please don't be dead..."

Filled with a burst of rage, we continued the fight.

"So, you must be Summer, right?" Grovyle said as he grappled with her vine whips.

"You are a bad Pokemon," she said, "You have just knocked out my friend, and I don't even know if he is alive or not," For the first time I thought I saw tears in her eyes.

"Quinton? Don't worry about him," Grovyle said. "He may be bitter about it for a while, though,"

With that, Grovyle used a super-fast Quick-attack, tripping Summer over. She laid on her side for several seconds, and then tried to get back up. She only managed to crawl over to Quinton and pass out there. Blood was streaming from a gash on her leg where Grovyle had hit her with the Quick-attack.

"So, we meet again, Timothy and Jet," Grovyle said, powering up his leaf-blade.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" I asked irritably, using faint attack. I only managed in knocking him over, and he clipped me with his leaf-blade. I landed and discovered that I could no longer step on my right hind leg. I looked at it. It was starting to bleed a little bit.

"Hey, I'm only going by what Senior told me and what I know," he said. Tim aimed a Force-Palm at Grovyle's head. Grovyle grabbed Tim's arm and flung him up and over. Tim landed with a thud on his other arm. I heard a loud crack and Tim cry out in pain. His arm was probably broken. That only made me angrier.

Ignoring my own pain, I rushed up on Grovyle. But the second I opened my mouth to use Flamethrower, Grovyle ducked underground and used Dig. I ended up hitting Timothy. He wailed in pain again, and collapsed on the ground, moaning.

"I'm so sorry Tim!" I cried.

"Focus... on... battle..." he whispered. He closed his eyes.

He was right. I knew that Grovyle would pop up any second now and use Dig on me. I was right.

He erupted beneath me. I was thrown high into the air, and I came crashing back down. I don't think that I had passed out at this point quite yet, but now is where my memory starts to fail me.

I stood back up, seething with anger. I had no idea what I was doing. Grovyle was just standing there, and I walked up to him. I bit his arm. He must have used leaf-blade on me. I felt the hard attack on my shoulder. I went numb. He continued to hit me with his one arm that was still free with Leaf-Blade.

Flame spurted out of my mouth, and then erupted in a full-scale Fire-Fang (a move that I don't even know) I heard Grovyle gasp in pain.

I fell off his arm. I felt the blood start to flow from the gash on my side. The lights were getting dim. I could still see Grovyle, holding his badly burned arm against his chest. He turned. Timothy was getting up. With that final consolation, I passed out.

_**(This part is based on the records of other Pokemon, including Timothy, Chimecho, Sunflora, and Marowak.)**_

___Timothy stood up wearily. He felt dizzy, but then he saw Alex on the ground. There was a pool of blood starting to form underneath her. He nearly threw up. He saw Grovyle. His right arm was badly burned. Timothy walked over to Grovyle. The Thief powered up his Leaf-Blade, but Timothy grabbed the blades. He ignored the burning pain it sent through his paws._

_ "You will never hurt her again, do you hear me?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper._

_ Grovyle was scared beyond belief. He had never seen so much rage pent up in one Pokemon. And he knew that he was about to receive a large dose of it._

_ But he didn't. Timothy's eyes traveled from Grovyle's to where Alex had collapsed. Timothy released Grovyle and went over to Alex. He gently picked her up and laid her across his lap. He was getting blood all over the place. He didn't care._

_ Grovyle never knew what hit him next. It was Dusknoir. Grovyle hopped back up again. "Dusknoir, so you have followed me even here? I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised."_

_ "Of course, you scoundrel," Dusknoir said. Grovyle was getting into a fighting stance. "So, you think that you can do 3 battles in a row? And your final and most challenging with only one good arm?"_

_ "I guess we won't know until I try," Grovyle said, smiling. Timothy was watching the entire thing._

_ The two lunged at each other. There was a flash of light, and suddenly, Grovyle was gone._

_ "Blast it! He never intended to fight me at all..." Dusknoir muttered. Dusknoir gathered himself up, and rather quickly disappeared._

_ Timothy blinked several times. "Wh-what just happened..." he said to himself. He started to feel dizzy again. He fell back, his entire brain filled with only one thought._

_ "Alex, please be ok..." he whispered as the black curtain of sleep covered him._

_ It was at that time that nobody can tell exactly how much time had passed. Eventually, the rest of the guild arrived and was shocked with the horror of the blood-bath before their eyes. Chimecho had tears in her eyes._

_ "We need four stretchers!" she shouted. She was fearful for her friends' lives. By the looks of it, Quinton had several broken bones, Timothy had 2 different kinds of burns on his chest and on his paws, along with the fact his arm was broken. Summer seemed to have minimal injury but with some blood loss, along with a gash on her hind leg. _

_ It was Alex that she was really worried about. She had lost a lot of blood. It was on the ground, it was matted in her fur, and it was on Timothy. He had been cradling her before he had passed out. Chimecho knew that she couldn't help Alex alone. She would need help._

_ They got the four casualties back to their room in the guild. Immediately, Chimecho went out into the town, asking everyone she saw if they had any medical experience what so ever. No one did. And no one asked her what she needed it for. Then Chimecho remembered one Pokemon she hadn't asked yet. She rushed into Marowak's Dojo._

_ "Welcome to Marowak's Dojo, train to become a stronger you," Marowak said. _

_ "I'm not here to train, Sensei," Chimecho said. "Do you have any medical experience? We have four guild apprentices who have lost a pretty bad battle with Grovyle the Thief, and-"_

_ A shadow crossed Marowak's face. She had medical experience, but that could expose her identity. She had come here for a new start._

_ "Please, sensei," Chimecho said. "Alex has lost a lot of blood, and I'm afraid that she may not make it..."_

_ That made up Marowak's mind. "Let me get some things and I'll meet you at the guild, ok?"_

_ Chimecho nodded and went back to the guild. A few minutes later, Marowak arrived with a box with a series of scratched out words along the bottom._

_**(This is not rated M, so I'll just skip the next whole part...)**_

_Marowak came out into the main room. The entire guild was waiting for her to get done. She had been in there for six hours._

"_Well, there's some good news and some bad news," She said. Everyone thought they knew what had happened. Someone had not made it._

_As if reading their minds, Marowak chucked slightly. "No, no one has died yet," she said, "But I am still very worried about Alex. She seems to be stable, but still critical. We can't know for sure if she will make it until morning, but I trust that she can make it. After all, she did train at my Dojo!"_

"_And how are the others?"_

"_Summer is actually awake at the moment, Quinton is still asleep but I expect him to be awake soon. His injuries are far less severe than what I had first thought. Timothy's arm is fractured in several places, but it should heal with time. But his paws... They are burned very badly, and I'm afraid that once he evolves into Lucario he won't be able to use the move Aura Sphere. The other burns on his chest are minor, but the thing is, those were fire burns,"_

"_I think I know what happened," Wigglytuff said. "Alex or Quinton tried to use Flamethrower or another fire-type move on Grovyle, but he dodged it and the move ended up hitting Timothy instead. Marowak, would you please come see me in my chamber?"Wigglytuff went into his personal room. Marowak, her heart a-flutter, followed._

"_I know your secret," Wigglytuff said. Marowak's heart froze. "Here, have an apple," Wigglytuff said. "It's an honor to have an original member of Team Topaz here,"_

_Marowak was silent. "Well, you got me," she finally said. "Yes, I'm Govette from Team Topaz. How could you tell?"_

"_Your box," Wigglytuff said. "It's the same issue as what we would have gotten if we lived back in your region,"_

_Marowak smiled and nodded. "I was wondering how much longer I would be able to hide it,"_

"_I must ask, though. Why did you quit?"_

_Marowak was silent, and then said, "Toni wanted to return to the human world. We're still in contact, but Team Topaz is no more. Last I heard, she has found a nice trainer who takes good care of her. I'm happy for her,"_

_They were quiet. Marowak silently finished her apple and waited for permission to leave. Wigglytuff said, "If you would like it, I can keep quiet about all this, you know,"_

"_That will not be necessary," Marowak sighed. "It's time that someone other than me knew about me. Thank-you, Wigglytuff,"_

_Marowak returned to her Dojo, feeling much better. She laid down on her bed, and for the first time since Toni had left the first time, she cried._


	14. Chapter 13, Dusknoir's Secret

Chapter 13

Dusknoir's Secret

(Notice the chapter number... Mwahahaha!)

I was finally awake. It was slow going- Summer said that I would start mumbling and then fall back asleep, but I finally managed to open my eyes.

The first thing that I saw filled me with terror. Timothy was on his back, he was wrapped in gauze, and he wasn't moving. I tried to get over to him, to make sure he was ok, but pain streaked through my body. I let out a small moan. Tim's eyes snapped open and he was at my side in a moment. His arm was in a cast, his chest was burned, but he was happy to see me awake.

"You're alive... you're alive..." he said, tears filling up his eyes. He patted me on my cheek with his good paw.

"Wh-what happened...?" I croaked. I cleared my throat and then repeated, "What happened to Grovyle?"

"We don't know. Dusknoir went after him, and we haven't heard about either since."

"Wait, how long have I been out?" I said, trying to get up. It hurt a lot, and I nearly shouted in pain.

"Please, Alex. Don't move too much... you're still in bad shape... It's been a little less than a week since the fight."

"We need to get out there and find Grovyle and Dusknoir," I said, attempting a third try to get up. It hurt like crazy, but I managed to get up. Timothy shook his head.

"Alex, I don't think that you understand the severity of your situation. Alex, you zeroed out. Marowak was able to save you though,"

"Wait, are you trying to say that I died?" I said.

Tim nodded. "You lost a lot of blood, and you're still pretty weak. You left like half of it back at the lake,"

"How is Azelf?"

"He's fine," Chimecho said as she entered the room. She smiled sweetly and said, "Welcome back Alex. I see you're strong enough to get up. Are you ready for some visitors?"

I smiled and nodded.

"Everyone! She's awake!" Chimecho yelled as high as her shrill lungs would allow. I felt a faint rumble as the just about the entire guild pushed their way into the room. The guild, along with some other teams. Team Kokoro, was only one of about 10 waiting to say hi to me.

After everyone was gone, I was surprisingly tired. I laid down and fell asleep again...

When I was awakened, I tried to hobble out to the main hall. I failed miserably. I went back to my bed and awaited news.

"Why is everyone else allowed to go out there? I'm not the only one who battled, you know..."

I waited about 30 minutes before everyone returned. They were not alone. Dusknoir had come back, and he had a confession.

"Alex, I am going to need you to listen closely to me," he said. We were the only ones in the room. "Well, the thing is, is that I knew Grovyle from before all of this. Furthermore, we are both Pokemon from the future."

I was silent, trying to digest this. I swallowed.

"Grovyle is a wanted outlaw in the future, along with some other Pokemon and Humans. Grovyle came to this time to escape punishment. Once here, he hit upon an utterly catastrophic plan. He planned to steal the Time Gears to cause the Planet's Paralysis."

"What is that?" I asked. It sounded serious.

"It would be nothing less than the complete ruin of the world. In a paralyzed world, no winds blow, the sun never rises or sets, the seasons never change..." Dusknoir stopped for a few seconds, and then resumed, "It is catastrophic... a calamity..."

"It sounds horrible. What kind of sick Pokemon would want that?"

"Grovyle, obviously. But we have hit upon a plan of our own. We are going to wait for Grovyle at the Crystal Lake. We believe that Grovyle will probably try to come back to the lake to get the Time Gear, and that is when we will capture him."

"What will you do after that?" I asked.

"I believe that I must return home to my own time with Grovyle the Thief."

"Oh..." I said. Dusknoir was going to go home...

"Well, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf and I will be heading out soon. I will say good-bye once we get back,"

I nodded, but didn't say anything else. Dusknoir bid me farewell and left. Timothy, Summer, and Quinton came in and asked me what I thought of it all.

"I'm bummed out that sir Dusknoir is going home," I said. I laid down again while the other three talked. Chimecho came in and brought me some dinner. I hadn't even realized how hungry I was. I ate ravenously, and then nearly fell asleep.

"I'll probably get fat now," I said tiredly.

"You'll be back out there in no time, Alex. You'll burn it all off like fat off of an over-weight black Vulpix," Quinton said. He was fairing pretty well considering he had several sprained and bruised joints and bones. He and Summer were allowed to go train in Marowak's Dojo, but not go out exploring quite yet.

I fell asleep, quite content. And that was pretty much how the next week passed. Sleeping, eating, talking, and after several days, Chimecho said I could walk around the lower floor of the guild. I disregarded her and walked around both floors of the guild. I frequently came to bother her at her Team Assembly just to annoy her. I mean it's not like there were very many other teams who used the Assembly. That's when I realized something.

"Hey, Chimecho? Could Myuki and Sikyatavo still go out and do jobs and stuff?"

"Well, I suppose they could," She replied. She was turning red with frustration. I knew it would be best to make myself hidden before she exploded like Wigglytuff.

We finally got the news- Grovyle had been captured. Dusknoir was still a few hours away, but he had promised to come to treasure town to have is final farewells. I felt sad, and I longed for Chimecho to let me go into town to let me say goodbye.

At first she flat out refused. I started wearing on her, and eventually she said, "You know what? Fine! You can go, or come, or whatever! But don't blame me if something bad happens to you because you didn't listen to me!"

"Nothing bad will happen to me," I said coolly, but feeling over-whelming joy bubble up within me. I hugged Chimecho's skirt and then went back to my room. It wasn't long until we received word that Dusknoir's time travel portal had been opened in the main square. Everyone in the guild went down to the square to see what was happening.

I could only stare at the hole. It seemed to swirl and go on forever, with twisting black, green, blue, and finally into deep lavender.

We were told to stay away from it by officer Magnizone.

"Even if you touch it, you will be sent into the future, so stay back," he repeated every several seconds. Team Kokoro had been hanging out around Treasure Town, so they were there too. They seemed to like Spinda's Cafe a lot.

Eventually we received word that Dusknoir was here. He was not alone- he had Grovyle and an entire troop of Sableye. Grovyle was not pleased at being bound and muzzled. I almost felt sorry for him. He seemed tired, he was bruised in several places, and it seemed as if his burned arm had received no treatment. For the first time, I noticed some of the scales on his side were darker than the rest. It was probably just a birth-mark though.

"Everyone, Grovyle the thief has been captured!" Dusknoir said. A cheer went up from the assembled Pokemon.

"But, I have a sad piece of news for you. I must return to the future from which I came,"

Several sad cries came out from Bidoof, Chatot, and several other Pokemon. Someone asked, "How far into the future are you? Will we ever see you again?"

Dusknoir shook his head, saying, "I am truly sorry. I have no idea how far into your future I dwell, but I promise that I will try to find Treasure Town and visit you. But beside that, Grovyle will no longer steal your Time Gears,"

At this point Grovyle tried to say something. His muzzle prevented him from opening it, and the ropes cut into his skin. I looked at Tim. He seemed to have one emotion at this point. Hatred towards Grovyle for what he had done to me.

"Sableye, if you may," Dusknoir said. They all grabbed a hold of Grovyle who was struggling at this point, and heaved him into the Dimensional Hole. There was an indescribable sound as he went through. One by one, each of the Sableye jumped in, too. Dusknoir turned as if to leave. He turned one final time and said, "This is... Wait, I'm sorry. There are two Pokemon who I need to come up here,"

My heart clenched. I wondered if he meant Tim and me.

"Alex and Timothy, would you please come up here?" He said. We both walked up to Dusknoir.

"So, this is good-bye then?" I asked, tears starting to fill my eyes. Tim's eyes were getting shiny too.

"Well, I suppose it is..." He said slowly, and then faster, "Or is it?"

"Huh?" I said, surprised. What did he mean?

The moment this thought had passes, the jagged line in the middle of his body opened up to reveal a mouth. Tim shrunk back, unsure of what to do next. Dusknoir laughed. It wasn't a funny ha-ha laugh. It was sinister, and it made the fur on the back of my neck bristle.

"It is too soon for good-byes!" He shouted. He lunged for me. I felt his hand wrap around my hair and he yanked up. I yelped in pain. I heard Tim shout and I saw he was on top of Dusknoir. The famous explorer stumbled back, and we fell into the Dimensional hole. Dusknoir released me and I turned to look behind us. The entire town was approaching the dimensional hole, and then the entire scene flickered like a flipped off TV screen. The swirling colors were dizzying me. I turned and saw Tim floating, cast away like a forgotten rag doll. After that, there seemed to be more black than green, blue and purple. Then I guess I passed out again. I could still hear Dusknoir's laugh.


	15. Chapter 14, Into the Future

Chapter 14

Into the Future

I had the sensation of being dragged… I was trying to wake up, but I couldn't… I was slipping back into unconsciousness…

_Up in the dilapidated tower, Dusknoir stood before the dark shadow._

"_It is complete, my master," He said. A low rumble came from the shadow. Dusknoir seemed to understand perfectly. "Of course, my master. Those who wish to change time must be erased from time. It will be done as you have asked,"_

_The shadow let out another rumble, and then it disappeared._

I opened my eyes. I felt so cold, even through the thin blanket that covered me. The hay that I was laying on smelled bad. Tim was a little bit away, leaning against the wall. He was asleep and shivering. I slowly got up and grabbed the blanket with my teeth. I dragged it across the ground and laid it across Timothy. Then I curled up next to him.

I felt him shift slightly, and then he placed his paw on my back. Some of the bindings had come undone.

"I don't know what happened," He said. I thought he was talking about when Dusknoir had grabbed me, but what he said next surprised me.

"Team Skull had come to Crystal cave. They were going to collect some crystals to try and sell. They didn't seem all that bad- I mean, they acted nice and all. I was a dungeon-dweller back then, so I had to battle them. I was able to knock them up a little bit, and they asked me to join their team." He sighed, and then continued, "I just had to accept them. It wasn't until later that I realized they had bad intentions. I quit, and then I found the relic fragment."

He pulled it out of his bag. After looking at it for a little while, he leaned back against the wall. "They continually attacked me for it. I wouldn't let them have it, so eventually I ran away to Treasure Town. They stalked me there too, so I stayed in Sharpedo Bluff. I was only there for about a week before I came down to the beach and found you on the sand…"

He placed the Relic Fragment back into his bag. We were silent for a very long time.

"I think Dusknoir dragged us," I said finally. Tim nodded.

"I saw him grab you, and I guess I must have jumped on him. After that, I guess we fell into the Dimensional Hole. But if that happened, then… Then…" He jumped up and freaked out. "We're in the future! But…" he looked around. "Where are we? This looks like-"

"A jail," I finished for him. He nodded and sat. He looked around and spotted something. He crawled over to a spot on the wall. I followed him and looked. There were words etched on to the wall. Tim shook his head.

"It's a different language. I can't read it." He said plainly. I continued to stare at it. I could.

"It says, 'To the next prisoners who have the joy of being here, welcome. I have left these few paragraphs telling a little about me so that my legacy may continue into the next generations. I am only 13 years old, but I have been here to this stockade several times. Me and my partners have been investigating the planet's paralysis for the last several months.

'If by some miracle I do escape, I shall continue my investigations wi-'"

"With who?"

"It leaves off there." I said. I knew that it would drive me crazy not knowing who this child was talking about…

The large door behind us opened up. Several Sableye came in and surrounded us.

"They're awake," said the leader. "Good. That makes our job easier, boys. Let's go,"

The Sableye grabbed each of us. A blind-fold was whipped around my head. I struggled, and then one of the Sableye punched me on several points. I felt my body go limp. I heard Tim groan as he underwent the same thing that I had just felt. I couldn't move, and I guessed that they had hit my pressure points. We were dragged through several corridors before one of the Sableye pushed me up against a curved wall. I felt something- rope?- being wrapped around me. I felt the layers start to pile up and the pressure become barely bearable.

The blindfold was whipped off, but I still could barely see. To my left, I heard Timothy grunting, trying to break free of the ropes. At least he could still feel his limbs. I was completely numb.

"Where are we…" I whispered to myself. A sudden ray of light appeared over Timothy. He squinted under the harsh beam, but looked over to me.

"We'll be ok," He said. "We just need to-"

"What you need is someone like me to help you escape," a voice from my right said coolly. I shuddered. I knew that voice. The lights came on, and I saw him.

Grovyle looked pretty bad. His eye was black and there was a small rivulet of dried blood at the corner of his mouth. That and he still had the bruises from before. He was bound in a similar fashion as Tim and I. He weakly turned his head and gave a small smile. I hated that smile.

"Nice to see you two again, Jet and Timothy," he said, voice barely above a whisper. "If you help me, I think that I could help you out. I know how to get out of here,"

Tim and I were both quiet. Grovyle spoke again, "If you want to be left for the Sableye to kill, be my guest. I'm just offering my services to two lost explorers."

"Where are we?" I asked. I was desperate, and I knew that Grovyle was our only choice.

"In the stockades," Grovyle said. "Torture, executions… all that 'fun' stuff,"

I sighed and said, "Ok, I'll let you help us, but don't expect much else after that. I'm still recovering from our last battle, you know,"

"At least you two got medical treatment," Grovyle said, turning forward. The doors were opening. A troop of Sableye marched in, followed by Dusknoir.

"Dusknoir!" Timothy exclaimed. He sounded as if he was hoping that Dusknoir was here to save us. I already knew that was not going to happen.

"Sableye, you know what to do," Dusknoir said, ignoring Timothy. "And pay close attention to that dirt-bag Grovyle,"

"You're the dirt-bag, Dusknoir," Grovyle retorted. The Sableye were getting closer. Grovyle put his head down and whispered, "Ok, you two, keep your voices down so the Sableye can't hear you. You, Jet?"

"Stop calling me that!" I said quietly. Tim also put his head down slightly to hear us.

"Ok, so you see how the ropes are binding us?"

I nodded. The Sableye were getting closer.

"Well, Sableye around here take to using the move Fury Swipes to attack."

"So if the Fury Swipes hit the ropes, they could come lose and we could make a run for it!" Tim whispered excitedly. I wasn't quite as excited.

"What if they don't hit the ropes?" I asked as the Sableye reached us. "And what if… they don't even use Fury Swipes?"

"If that happens," Grovyle said. The Sableye pulled back their arms as he continued, "Don't even think about it,"

And the Sableye started attacking. They aimed mostly for our faces, but they did hit the ropes quite often. I wondered absent-mindedly if this was how Grovyle had gotten the scar on his face. Timothy started complaining, and Grovyle shouted to endure it. Suddenly, I felt the ropes begin to break. I looked to the left and the right. Tim's and Grovyle's were also breaking. We nodded and pushed away from the wall.

I fell flat on my face, but the other two landed on their feet. I saw Grovyle pull something out of his bag and throw it on the ground. There was a blinding flash of light, and I felt Grovyle's claw clamp around mine. Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. I realized that we were underground. Grovyle uttered a 'shhh' and I knew to be silent. I heard the Sableye begin to patter around above us. Dusknoir called out, and I heard them all retreat to go and find us.

As soon as they left, I felt Grovyle start to move. He broke through the surface and hauled Tim and me up through the hole. I was still wobbly on my legs, so Timothy picked me up as Grovyle pointed the way to go.

Timothy and Grovyle started running. It soon got too dark to see. Grovyle seemed to know the way out by heart.

"So, Grovyle, this is really our future?" I asked.

"That's right," He said. "So how did you two end up here?"

Tim was silent, save for his heavy breathing. I answered, "Dusknoir grabbed me and pulled me into the Dimensional Hole. Timothy followed us, and so here we are. I don't know why he wanted to get rid of us though."

"You must have done something he couldn't tolerate,"

"But that's it though. We didn't do anything wrong!"

"Did you tell him your name?"

"Yeah,"

"Then there you go. Think about it. You're in the future now. Here in this time you could be on his hit list,"

"But Dusknoir said that this time was in the distant future," I said.

"Only about 300 years or so," Grovyle said. "Ok, here we are. Beyond here you'll catch your first glimpse of this world."

With a slight grunt, Grovyle opened the door. Tim and I gasped. Outside, it was almost as dark as it had been inside the stockades. Grovyle continued running, and Timothy followed suit. I told him to set me down, as I could tell he was getting tired. He did. I was still rather slow, but Timothy got a break.

"Grovyle, why are those rocks floating?" I asked, referring to the huge boulders suspended in mid-air.

"Time is stopped here," Grovyle said. Tim and I stopped. Grovyle turned. "C'mon guys, hurry up. The Sableye have probably figured out that we got away and are most likely following us."

Even though we kept running, I couldn't stop thinking about why time was stopped. Wasn't it Grovyle's Time Gear theft that had caused it in the first place?

We reached the first dungeon. Tim placed one of his burned paws on the rock, bent over and threw up. He was exhausted. I went over to him and rubbed his back. Grovyle turned and leaned on the rocks, tapping his foot impatiently.

"We need to hurry," he grunted. He wiped his mouth, clearing away the dried blood that had been there since we had been at the stockades.

"Hey, we never said that we would be continuing with you after we escaped," I said as Timothy vomited again. "You are a thief, and a horrible Pokémon at that,"

Grovyle only chuckled. "And that Dusknoir is the good-guy? A wise explorer once said that there were no truly bad Pokémon in the world. There may be ones with bad intentions, but we all have a shining heart underneath all of it. Have it your way, then. But don't let those Sableye get you." He got up and headed into the cave.

Timothy looked up, light-headed, but was able to say, "I hate that guy,"

"You and me both," I said. We went into the cave after a few minutes of rest.

We encountered very few other Pokémon in the dungeon. But about mid-way through, a blazing streak of pain engulfed my shoulder. It caught me off guard and I tripped. I was falling down, down, down…

I landed on something soft and bouncy. I heard a slight groan from the mass beneath me, and I realized that we were floating up again. Timothy was peering over the edge, and he grabbed me the moment he could reach me. I lay on the ground, gasping for breath. I looked up to see what had saved me. It was a Drifblim.

"Well howdy," he said. He nodded and floated toward us. Tim got into a defensive position, but the Drifblim laughed. "Don't worry; I'm not here to fight y'all. In fact, I recognize you two…"

"Listen, we're kind of lost and we're both in no condition to be traveling around in dungeons like this," Tim said.

"I can see that," Drifblim said. "So I would advise you to get some rest in the next cave. There's an older guy living there, but I doubt that he would care if you stayed for a day or two,"

"Thank-you, Mr. Drifblim," Timothy said, picking me up again. I shut my eyes. The pain was getting un-bearable.

"Please, call me Lest," he said as he drifted upwards. "I'll see you again in about a hundred years!" and with that, he disappeared.

"What does he mean?" I asked as Tim started walking again.

"I don't know, but considering we're in the future, I'd say that once we get back to our time, we're going to meet a Drifloon or Drifblim named Lest."

I nodded, and we bursted out into the next section. There was a small cave with a frozen spray of water next to it. That must have been what Lest was talking about.

Suddenly, Timothy wobbled and fell down, throwing me down too. I couldn't move. I just kind of laid there, wondering what had happened. I called out to Timothy, but he didn't respond. I was afraid. Everything was getting blurry. I saw a tall form coming towards the cave, drop everything, and run to us. I heard him say something, but I couldn't really hear him all that well. I just stayed silent, and the voice spoke again.

"Are you two ok?" he asked.

I couldn't move, I couldn't talk. No, I was not ok. The being that had just arrived seemed to understand, so he picked me up and brought me into the cave. I passed out in there.

I have no idea how much time passed before I woke up again. My wounds had been freshly cleaned and bound, and as far as I could tell, so had Tim's. I looked around the cozy cave. The form who had come to our rescue was sitting in a corner with his legs folded. He must have been meditating or something. I looked closely at him. I couldn't tell what he was- well, I could tell that he was a Pokémon, but not what kind of Pokémon.

He had two tall ears that stood strait up, listening. His eyes were closed. The markings on his body looked raccoon-like. He seemed to have a mask with four more ear-like things coming out from behind his head. His body was covered in a soft-looking brown fur. His muzzle was covered in grey hair, signifying his age.

I tried to speak again, but with no success. The old Pokémon must have sensed that I was awake because he opened his eyes. They were like chips of hardened emerald and showed many long years of pain and sorrow. He came over to me and sat down again. He didn't say anything, but instead he touched my forehead with one paw. He closed his eyes again and started to meditate. I was sort of freaked out, but I kept my cool. After several minutes, he opened his eyes and looked at me.

"Hello, Jet." He said. "Welcome."

"Why does almost everyone from the future call me that?" I managed to say. The old Pokémon smiled, but remained silent. I wanted to hear his voice again. It soothed me in a strange way. It was deep and rich, and yet carried a sad, softer tone to it. Like a bell, I realized.

"Who are you?" I asked. He was silent for a long time, and I was about to ask him again when he answered me.

"My name is Senior," he said. "I am a Lucario. The rest of your questions that are popping up every second shall be answered once your partner Timothy wakes up,"

Senior refused to answer about half of our questions, but he did answer some of them.

"So, why does everyone here call me Jet?" I asked.

"Because that is your true name, is it not?"

"Wait, you mean my name before I got turned into a Pokémon?"

"What do you mean? You are a Black Vulpix, and your name is Jet, correct?"

"No, that's not my name," I said irritably. "My name is Alex, and I was turned into a Pokémon from being a human. I don't know how, so please don't ask,"

Senior was stunned to silence. He was silent for a long time, and then he said, "Are you two ready to leave?"

"You didn't answer the question!" I shouted angrily. Senior shook his head.

"The answer you seek does not originate from me," he said. He stood up, cracked his back, and then looked down at us. "Your final answer from me is about Grovyle. He is and will be telling the complete truth. He has had a tough time recently, you see. He tries as best as he can to get by without… Never mind. Let's go. I sense he is in grave danger,"

Tim and I looked at each other. We really didn't want to help Grovyle, but Senior had probably just saved our lives, so we didn't have any choice but to follow the old Lucario down into the depths of another dungeon.

As we went, I noticed several things about Senior. He walked slowly, rarely using his hands while fighting. The other thing was the worn scarf he was wearing. It was thread-bare and probably was doing nothing but sitting on his shoulders. I looked at it to see if there was a name or an initial somewhere on it. All I saw were two tiny letters, barely able to be seen. 'T+J'.

I shook my head. I was still clueless. We reached the mid-way point. "We need to hurry," Senior said, passing the Kangashkan rock. I stared at it. It brought back painful memories of how kind the real Kangashkan had been. I missed everyone.

"_It's been just one strait path since I left," Grovyle thought to himself. There were some rocks strewn across the ground in the cavern. He turned around, looking behind. "I wonder how those two kids are doing," he thought. Shaking his head, he proceeded forward._

"_I can't think about that now. I must complete the mission, no matter what the cost," he muttered._ _He was just about to leave when he heard a voice._

"_You DARE to enter… You DARE to leave WITHOUT an APOLOGY?"_

"_Who's there?" Grovyle growled, whipping around. He scanned the area but did not see anything. "Wh-where are you?"_

"_WE are… HERE!" the voice shouted. Everything got dark. The voice continued, "We are SPIRITOMB!"_

_Grovyle never knew what hit him._

"I believe we are getting closer," Senior said. The rooms were getting bigger and rockier. "Once we find Grovyle, I am going to back-track."

"Why? Wait, you're going to leave us?" Tim asked.

"I am going to see if I can lead those Sableye off your course," he said, looking around. "And you won't be alone. You will have Grovyle, although he may be unconscious. And beyond this cave there is a farm-stead where I used to work,"

"Used to work?" I asked.

Senior nodded. "All I'll say about it is that the farmer's son and I were a part of something that he didn't appreciate. So he fired me. His son got into trouble, but by now he should be over it."

"So his son will help us?" I asked. Senior nodded. "If Grovyle is in really bad shape, I'll accompany you a little farther, but I will be turning back."

We continued walking. I could faintly hear a strange buzzing sound from several rooms ahead. It was getting louder. I started trotting. Then I broke into a run, and then I stopped. My shoulder was hurting.

"Take it easy, Alex," Tim said, appearing behind me. We both looked up. Grovyle was there, face-down. A strange glow surrounded him.

"Grovyle!" Senior exclaimed. He approached him cautiously, and then looked around. He spotted something of interest and picked it up. It looked like a plain rock. But suddenly it took on a purple and green glow. It spread onto his arm. Soon, Senior was engulfed in the same eerie glow as Grovyle. He sank to his knees, groaning.

"Don't… Touch… Spiritomb…" he mumbled before passing out. Tim and I just stared at the rock.

"What should we do?" I asked. We needed to get rid of this Spiritomb.

"I know," Tim said. He picked up another rock and threw it at Spiritomb. That made it angry, and it finally showed itself. It was mostly purple, but it had flecks of green here and there, along with two oddly shaped green eyes. The entire spirit was constantly shifting.

"Prepare to fight!" it squealed.

The nasty thing about Spiritomb is that it has no weaknesses. Timothy had almost no effect on it what so ever, so I ended up using flame thrower a lot. Eventually Spiritomb gave up. He re-called the possessive spirits from Senior and Grovyle and fled the scene.

I went over to Senior, and Tim to Grovyle. Senior was still. At first I thought he was dead, but then he moved slightly. Next he opened his eyes and grunted. He propped himself up on one elbow and looked me in the eye.

"Good job, Jet," he said. He got up into a sitting position and watched how Timothy handled Grovyle. Tim, through his burns and bruises, hoisted Grovyle onto his back. Senior got up and lifted Grovyle on to his own back.

"It would seem as if Grovyle is out cold," Senior said. "Well have no fear, for the farm-stead is just around the bend,"

Tim and I followed the old Lucario carrying an unconscious Grovyle.


	16. Chapter 15, The Planet's Paralysis

Chapter 15

The Secret of the Planet's Paralysis

The farmer's son was cute. For a human, anyway. He was about 18 with bright red hair. He extended his hand to me, and I shook paws/hands with him.

"What a beautiful little lady," he said. We were in the barn. The farmer's son had been wrapping Grovyle's wounds, and now he was finally in a restful sleep.

"So, tell me about yourself," I said. The farmer's son smiled. Dimples appeared as he did so.

"Well, I've lived in this world my entire life," he said. "I've never had the privilege of time-traveling. Not like a certain _someone _in my family…"

"Who?" Tim asked. "Do you have a brother or sister or something?"

The farmer's son nodded, but his smile disappeared. "Yeah, a little sister. Not much to say about _her _though. Ok, your guy's turn,"

"I'm from Crystal Cave originally," Tim said. "I joined one team, quit, and then met Alex here on the beach,"

The farmer's son looked at Tim, then at me, then at Senior, and then back to me. "So, your name is Alex?"

"Yeah…" I said, slightly suspicious. The farmer's son looked at Senior.

"Can I talk to you outside? Alone?" he said, a tone of an emotion that I could not identify on his voice. Senior bit his lower lip and followed the farmer's son outside. They walked quite a ways away, but I could still hear the farmer's son start yelling, though I couldn't make out the words.

I looked at Tim. "Was it something I said?"

"No," said a quiet voice from the corner. I looked up. Grovyle was trying to get up. "Whione just gets pissey when people talk about his sister."

"Hey, you're awake sleepy-head!" I said. I trotted over to him and sat down. "So, what's the deal with his sister?"

"Eh. No one has seen her in quite a while," Grovyle said, sitting up. He still looked like he was in pain, but he was enduring it. "Real sweet kid. I kind of liked her,"

"You had a crush on the farmer's daughter?" Tim asked. "That's cliché,"

"I never said I had a crush on her. Besides, I have someone else who loves me,"

"Who would that be?" I asked.

Grovyle smiled as he remembered. "Celebi," he said with a sigh. "I haven't seen her in a very long time. I miss her. But I'll see her again soon,"

"Wait, Celebi?" Timothy asked. "As in, the Time-Travel Pokémon?"

"That's the one!" Grovyle said. A shadow crossed his face as he continued, "I suppose why you could easily see why I chose Cel-"

The barn door opened. A woman was standing there with a pail. She was probably going to milk the Miltank. She stood there for several seconds, then started mumbling something under her breath- "I have at one time dreamed of the day when the moon shall shine brighter than the sun, silver will be worth more than gold, black will recover it's purity, and we shall live in peace forever…"

She dropped her pails and started to run. Grovyle swore under his breath and stood up. "We need to get out of here," he said. "That was the mistress of the farm. She'll now be off to tell the farmer about us."

"But what of Senior and the farmer's son?"

"Whione and Senior will be fine," Grovyle said as we grabbed our bags.

We started running out the open barn door. Whione and Senior were returning. We jetted past them. I shouted, "Bye, Whione and Senior! It was nice to meet you guys!"

"Wait! I have a gift for you three!" Senior shouted. He grabbed three black parcels for us, along with a small plastic box filled with something liquid.

"Trust me, you will need these," He said, handing them to Grovyle. He put them in his bag.

"God-speed," Senior said, stepping back. I nodded and started to run after Tim and Grovyle.

"Nice to meet you, Whione and Senior!" I shouted over my shoulder.

As we ran, Senior turned to Whione.

"Arceus, I hope they'll be alright," he said.

"Especially poor Alex." Whione said. "Mew bless her shining silver spirit,"

"So, where are we going?" Tim asked.

"To find Celebi," Grovyle said. "She got me to your time last time. But if Dusknoir knows about her, she'll probably be gone by now,"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Grovyle sighed and sat down on a near-by rock. "It's a long story, but if you want to hear it, I'll tell you,"

We continued onwards. "Ok, so you understand that time is stopped here, right?" Grovyle said. Tim and I nodded. "The destruction of time started back in your era, you see?"

"Wait, wasn't that because of you stealing the Time Gears?" Tim asked.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Grovyle said. "According to my research, the distortion of time was started before I got there!"

"Good point," I said.

"Besides, I wasn't stealing the Time Gears. I was collecting them,"

"Wait, what?" Tim said. "That's not what we were told. Dusknoir said that you were a wanted outlaw from the future who came to our time to steal the Time Gears to stop time,"

"Dusknoir is a lying jerk who also happens to be a bounty hunter sent from this time to get rid of me. All for Dialga's preservation."

"What?" I exclaimed. "So, you mean to say that everything Dusknoir said was a complete lie?"

"Well, almost everything," Grovyle said. "He was right about me being a wanted outlaw. But that's where the truth ends. And even the whole 'outlaw' thing is overrated. It's only because we are trying to restore time,"

"Who do you mean by 'we', and who is Dialga?" I asked.

"Well, for your first question, Whione, his sister, Senior, Celebi and I. We are going to restore time no matter what the cost. And for your second question, Dialga…" Grovyle stopped. "Dialga is the governor of time itself. But when time got out of whack, Dialga lost all control. In his rage, he became a new, primordial presence… He has become an entire different entity: Primal Dialga."

We continued to walk in silence. Then I asked, "What is Whione's sister like?"

Grovyle smiled. "She was a really nice girl," he said. "And a dear friend. Actually," he said, reaching into his bag. He pulled out a small rectangle of paper. "I have pictures of her." He handed the pictures to me.

She had bright red hair like her brother. It was very frizzy and long- she looked like some sort of wild child. Grovyle was beside her, making a silly face in each picture. There was a splash of freckles across her face. She seemed about 12 or so. I smiled. I knew that she would be the kind of person I would like to meet one day.

Oh if only I knew.

I handed the pictures back to Grovyle.

"That was back at the Ninetails festival," he said. "At one time, there was a Ninetails who tried to lay a curse down on a human. But the person's partner protected the human. The Ninetails had pity, and only laid down part of the curse. Instead of turning into a Pokémon and wandering the globe without friends, this person would have many friends. All of that is legend and folk-lore, and even if it were true, the story didn't even appear in literature until many, many years before either of you were born,"

It did sound similar to my situation, but I wasn't thinking of that at the moment. Grovyle was speaking.

"The Ninetails festival also commemorated another Ninetails, though," He was saying. He was staring straight at me. "She was a part of a famous exploration team. Her partner was a Lucario." My gut twisted. He was talking about us. He continued. "She was jet-black. That's why everyone called her Jet. That's why I've been calling you Jet," Grovyle said. "I assumed that it was you because of your color. And once I saw Tim, I was certain it was you."

"Wait, so 'm going to evolve into a Lucario like Senior?" Tim said.

Grovyle laughed. "You really haven't figured it out yet? Timothy, you _will _become Senior!"

Grovyle laughed and turned. My poor stomach was having a joy-ride. Ok, so if Senior is Tim, then where am I? And what was this other strange sensation in my gut? I had it before, I knew I had…

Then I realized I had been here too.

"Grovyle, where are we?" I asked. He spun around on one foot. He seemed in a good mood.

"We're getting close to where Celebi was the last time," He said. "Back in your time, this was Foggy Forest. But because you lifted the fog, it's only perpetually dark here, not foggy. Welcome to Dark Forest,"

That made me feel better. I had been here before- in my own time. I sighed in relief. I looked over at Tim. He was still trying to grasp the concept that he was going to become Senior. Poor guy.

Grovyle stopped, bringing Tim and I to a halt. He raised his voice and cried, "Celebi! It's me, Grovyle! I request your help once more!"

It was silent for a while. Timothy looked around. "She's not… here… Maybe she left… Wait, maybe Dusknoir already captured her!"

"Me, captured?" a tinkling voice echoed. Tim and I looked around, confused. Grovyle only smiled.

"Where… What was that voice?" Tim asked.

"It was me, silly," the voice said again. "Me? Captured? I would never dream of it!" With that, Celebi made herself known to us. She appeared in front of us. Instead of being green like Celebi are supposed to be, she was pink- showing that she was definitely a girl. She went over to Grovyle and gave him a big hug. "Nice to see you again, my dear Grovyle,"

"Wait, you're Celebi?" Tim said. He looked closer at her. "I thought Celebi was a huge time-traveling dragon, not a little pixie!"

"How rude!" she said, smiling. "But it's ok. Besides, aren't I cuter and more special than you would have ever imagined?"

Tim just stood there, blushing.

"You probably were thinking of Dialga. Stupid beast. He only wants what's best for himself- not everyone around him."

"Celebi, I need you to warp us back in time again," Grovyle said.

"Well duh!" she said. "Seeing you here explains everything. In a word- you failed."

Grovyle grunted some sort of reply. I didn't understand it.

"Oh well. You'd better get it right this time," She said. "I'm getting tired of this dreary world. If you would please spare me the agony of this world of darkness, my dear Grovyle, I will devote my entire life to achieve that end!"

As I pondered what she could mean by that, she looked over at me.

"Oh, well if it isn't… Wait…" she said. She stared at me for a long time.

"Is something wrong?" Grovyle said.

Celebi blinked and then looked at Grovyle. "No, it's nothing. Everything is ok." She looked back at me and then turned. I got a good look at her softly beating wings. She had a dark patch on one of her wings, similar to Grovyle's side. I didn't say anything, though. Once again, it was probably just another birth mark.

"How far until the Portal of Time?" Grovyle asked.

Celebi laughed. "You asked the exact same thing last time, too. And if you'd remember, I told you it wasn't far."

"Ok, ok," Grovyle said. "Ok, you two. We'll leave once you're ready,"

There was a Kangashkan rock nearby, so Tim and I took out some things. Then we went to Celebi.

"Hi hi! So, listen," she said. "You know how Grovyle is really impatient? I think that he should slow down some. With me, he has all the time in the world. Besides, it would make me happier if he did." She blushed, and then continued, "Not that I have any special feelings for him or anything!"

"Don't deny it," I said. Grovyle came over, and we headed into the forest. Little did we know that a certain purple Pokémon was following us.

"_Master, we have located the traitors,"_

"_GRRRRRRR…"_

"_When the time is right, it may be necessary for us to ask of your assistance. Is that fine with you, my lord?"_

"_GRRRRRRR…" _

"_Thank you, my master. We will catch those traitors,"_

This dungeon wasn't extremely long, but there were several Pokémon who liked to use Sandstorm. Who has ever heard of a sandstorm in a forest?

We made it through, though. I saw a big portal in front of us. It glowed bluish. I sighed in relief. We were so close to getting home!

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I said. I started walking. But suddenly, I heard evil laughing. My skin crawled as I backed up against Tim. Eight Sableye surrounded us from out of nowhere. I looked to the front. Dusknoir materialized.

"So, it seems that you have made it this far." He said, coming forward for us. My back bristled in fear and anger.

"No closer, Dusknoir," I growled. He only laughed, but he did stop moving.

"Let me guess, Dusknoir," Grovyle said. "You had one of your Sableye follow us so that you could capture Celebi as well as the rest of us,"

"What else?" He said. Looking around, he started to laugh again. "You are hopelessly out numbered, you know,"

"Numbers have no meaning in a battle," Timothy said. The four of us all crouched down into a fighting position.

"So, you resist?" Dusknoir said. Laughing again, he turned and shouted, "Master, Now!"

It turned pitch-black. More appropriately, jet-black. I heard heavy breathing above us, and then there was a deafening roar. A single red light was above us. It cast an eerie glow around everything.

"Gah…" Grovyle said. He knew what that was.

"Wh… what is that…." Timothy whimpered.

Everything was completely silent. Finally, Grovyle responded. "That's… that's Primal…Dialga…"

He turned to face Tim and I. His face looked as if he had aged several years in the last few minutes. He spoke. "I'm sorry… you two… you kept up so well…. But it ends here…"

"We can't give up!" I said. Fear coursed through my blood, but I still had one thing that was keeping me going. "We must have hope, Grovyle!"

"We do." He said. "It lies in my partner," Grovyle turned to Celebi, asking, "You remember her, right?"

"How could I?" she mumbled.

Turning back to me, Grovyle continued, "When I went to your time last time, I didn't go alone. Whione's sister was with me. But…. We were separated…. She is still back in your time. She knows that if I don't make it, she has to complete our mission for the world's sake,"

Everyone was silent. I saw Grovyle start to cry, silently. I thought I understood. Grovyle missed his friend. But then Dusknoir started to laugh. I glared at him.

"What's so funny," I said. "What did you do to Whione's sister?"

"Absolutely nothing!" He laughed. His entire body shook in hysteria. Looking at Grovyle, he asked, "Ok then, what was your partner's name?"

"You already know, you *****" Grovyle said. Oh, not a word that should be in anyone's dictionary…

"Ah, but do your two little friends know?"

My gut clenched as Grovyle said his partner's name. "Her name is Alex,"

No one said anything for a very long time. Finally, I broke the silence. "Grovyle… I am Alex,"

"That's not true!" he shouted at me. "Alex is a human!"

"Exactly," I said, starting to cry. "Grovyle, when Timothy found me on the beach, I had two memories. My name, and the fact that at one time or another, I was a human…"

Everything was clicking into place. I started to understand everything. The tears were falling thick and fast now. I was the reason Whione had yelled at Senior. I was the reason Celebi had stared at me when we first met. I was the reason for everything.

"She is exactly correct!" Dusknoir said, laughing again. "I met Alex in Treasure Town. At first I didn't suspect a thing, but once I learned her name and that she had the Dimensional Scream ability, I became certain that this was the same Alex of whom I had been searching for! And even better, I was able to turn you two against each other!"

"You… you… You monster!" I shouted at him. He ignored my remark and continued his gloating.

"So you see Grovyle? All your hope is lost. With my capture of Celebi, your stupid little group has no one to warp them back into Timothy's time. I have won, at last,"

We were silent. The Sableye were closing in. All I could do was stand there, staring blankly ahead. I heard Tim start talking to Celebi, but I wasn't listening to what he was saying. How stupid was I not to have figured this out earlier? There were so many clues- The fact that no one had seen the human form of me in a long time, that she had been time traveling… And now we would all pay.

"Sableye, attack!" Dusknoir commanded. I saw the Sableye lunge, but then they stopped in mid-air. I looked at Celebi. Her eyes were glowing.

"Go, you three!" she said. "You will be safe as long as I've paused time. Hurry before Dialga exposes it!"  
"What about you, Celebi?" I asked.

"Don't you remember? I can never be caught!" she said, small tears forming at the edge of her eyes. She looked at Grovyle. "Good-bye, my dearest,"

Grovyle nodded, and the three of us approached the Passage of Time. Suddenly, there was a loud sound, like shattering glass. Dialga had shattered Celebi's time distortion. I stood there, looking back at Celebi. I felt Tim- or could it have been Grovyle? - grab me by the scruff of my neck and drag me into the passage of time.

It was very similar to going through the Dimensional hole. The twisted dimensions and time were flashing before my eyes, spinning, and spinning, and spinning… the only thought filling my mind was the fact that I was a human from the future, with the mission to save the world.


	17. Chapter 16, A New Dawn

Chapter 16

A New Dawn

I was having the strangest case of déjà vu. I could hear the crashing of the ocean's waves nearby. I could feel soft, silky sand underneath me. I felt someone gently shaking me, trying to wake me up.

I opened one eye, then the other. Whoever it was, he was black and blue… I shook my head.

"Are you ok?" he asked. I looked up. Tim's face was looking down on me.

"Where…" I asked, getting up. "I am having the strangest case of déjà vu… Wait, isn't this-"

"Alex, we're back at the beach! We're home!"

I thought about that statement for a little while, then said, "No, you're home Tim. This isn't my time,"

Tim understood what I was trying to say, and he said, "Well, your memory seems to be intact after this trip. That's a relief- I didn't feel like telling you your life story."

I looked around the beach. Grovyle was laying on his back, soaking up the sunshine. He opened his eyes and looked over at us. "You are lucky, Tim. You get sun like this every day,"

I laughed a little bit. Then I started thinking. "Hey, Tim? We were suddenly whisked away in front of everyone… And everyone here still believes that Grovyle is the bad-guy. I don't think that we should let everyone know that we're back yet. What do you think?"

"There's the Beach Cave," Grovyle said. "We could stay there for the time being,"

"No, it's too dangerous there," Tim said. After a few moments of thought, he seemed to have an idea. "I know a good place, but it would require going through town…"

We sat for a while, wondering what to do. Grovyle started rummaging through his bag. He pulled out one of the parcels that Senior had given him. Opening it, we discovered what it was.

"It's a cloak," Tim said. We opened the other two packages- each containing a similar black cloak. I suddenly had a good idea.

"Hey, let's go into the beach cave. I have an idea!" I said, heading for the dungeon. When we reached the bottom, I lit a small fire. Grovyle and Tim were wondering what I was doing. I stepped onto the fire and sat there for several minutes until I was blackened with smoke. I shook out my curls until they laid flat on my head. It was about that time that Grovyle understood what I was going for.

"Umbreon. Very nice idea. We even have that yellow goop that Senior gave us. Nice thinking, Alex."

So, in no time at all, I went from being Alex the black Vulpix to Angora the blue-eyed Umbreon. Timothy became Rocco the spotted Riolu. Grovyle used a stick of charcoal and drew several dark patches on him. Grovyle remained himself, but just stayed under his hood, out of sight from prying eyes. We were all ready, each wearing our cloaks. We reviewed our cover story.

We were from a distant land and were going to be staying a few days in this town. I was the light-hearted chipper one who was trying her best not to be caught by any trainers ever. Rocco/Tim was rather quiet and did the deal making. He wouldn't talk about himself much and if someone asked about him, he would simply say he would rather not talk about it.

Grovyle would remain silent the entire time. If anyone asked what kind of Pokémon he was, we would tell them something similarly sized- such as Kirlia or Monferno. Grovyle would be completely hidden, so no one would be able to see what he really was.

As we headed into town, my heart started to beat faster and faster. What if someone recognized us? We were walking through town now. I recognized the faces of Sunflora and Bidoof. I wanted to call out to them, but I restrained myself.

"Hey! We're just closing up for the night. You guys want to buy anything?" asked one of the Keckleon brothers. I looked over at them and shook my head.

"No, not today, sirs," I said, putting a deliberate accent into my voice. They nodded and closed their shop up and went to their home behind the store.

Kangashkan looked at us, following us with her eyes. I was thinking 'Oh Mew, she suspects something…'

"Hey, you children," she said. The three of us stopped and turned. I went up to her counter.

"Yes ma'am?" I said, heart breaking in sadness.

"Do you need a place to stay the night?" she asked. She is such a mother to everyone. Her baby cooed and laughed, reaching out to me.

"Lex-la!" she shouted. Tears started to come to my eyes, but I held them back. Lex-la is what she called me. **( Author's note: LOL, it's like she's dyslexic or something!)**

Kangashkan patted her head, saying, "No, that's not Lex-la," Looking up, she told me what I already knew. "There was an explorer who used to attend the guild up the road whose name was Alex. By the way, what is your name?"

"Angora," I said. "What ever happened to this Alex?"

Kangashkan's face dropped. "No one is quite sure what happened. A while ago, there was a Pokémon from the future who was stealing the Time Gears. Once he was caught, he was sent back to his own time. But then… Well, that's where the controversy starts. Some say that she was grabbed and yanked into the Dimensional hole, others say that she fell in."

"And how long ago was this?"

"Oh, let me think… Probably about six months ago or so. By the spirit of Celebi, I miss her and her little friend."

"Angora," Rocco/Tim barked. I turned and nodded.

"Well, I need to be going now. It was nice meeting you, ma'am,"

"Same here," Kangashkan said. "Say bye-bye, baby!"

"Bye Lex-la!" the baby said. I turned the other way to hide my tears. I knew that Kangashkan was probably also crying.

I followed the other two out onto the bluff. "This is Sharpedo Bluff," Tim said. "I used to live here before I joined the guild,"

"Where? You mean like right here?" Grovyle said.

"Not exactly," Tim said. He pointed underneath a nearby bush. "Under that bush there are some stairs. Let's go,"

We crawled down the small stairway into the room beneath. Other than some boxes, it was quite open. There was a beautiful view of the sea and the beach. The three of us looked out and sighed in relief. We had made it through all odds.

"Ok, so can you explain this stuff to us? Like, everything?" I asked. "Like, what were we doing?"

It was much later that evening. After moving the few boxes, we had made our beds and a fire. Grovyle smiled.

"Well, you had- or have, an ability like no other,"

"You mean the Dimensional Scream?"

"Exactly. Whenever we were in a place that was connected to the Time Gears, it would activate. Now, the Dimensional Scream would only activate whenever there was a Time Gear. The opposite was also true. It would do nothing if there were no Time Gears."

"Wait, that's not how I remember it," Tim said. Turning to me, he continued, "Remember the first time you had a Dimensional Scream? It went off near Azurill, and then near Drowzee. And I know that they have absolutely nothing to do with Time Gears,"

"Perhaps," Grovyle said, "The nature of the Dimensional Scream is altered in this time. There is also something else about the Dimensional Scream. Whoever has the ability must have a trusted Pokémon as their partner. If there is no partner, the ability will not be activated at all,"

"Wait, really?" Tim said. "Alex started having Dimensional Screams not long after we met!"

"Your point?" Grovyle said, crossing his arms. "It just goes to show how much Alex trusted you from the start, doesn't it?"

I blushed. Timothy said, "Well, when you put it that way…" he turned to me and gulped. "It's actually kind of embarrassing…"

"Any way, that's why Alex and I worked together. We were together for about… Oh, probably a year or two. We knew each other for four years before that,"

We were quiet for a while. Grovyle spoke again. "Alex, you have no way of knowing this, but you were my best friend. And though you're a Pokémon like me now, that doesn't change anything. You will remain my best friend until we die,"

I smiled. I felt- no, knew- that he was telling the truth. "Well, even though I don't remember any of that, and we got off to a rather rocky start, I believe that we can be friends again,"

"Yeah… You and I were quite the refugees, running from the Sableye,"

"I know what it's like to be a refugee. To run for days on end," said a voice from the stair way. All three of us turned in fear to see who it was. Marowak stood there, head bowed, arms folded. She looked up, her face unreadable. "I have also experienced losing a dear friend, Grovyle."

We all stared at her. "Why… How…" Tim asked. She laughed lightly.

"Don't worry. I'll be quiet about you guys getting back," she said, coming in. She sat down on the ground in between Grovyle and me. "But it is nice to see you again. How are your injuries healing?"

"Just fine, thank you," I said. She glanced over me and nodded. "You'll probably get a nasty scar, but other than that, you seem to be doing fine. And Tim, how are you?"

"Delightful," he said. He held out his hands for Marowak to see.

She looked at them, and then said, "You seem to be doing just fine, too. Once again, you may not want to use your paws during battle. Now, for you Grovyle," she said turning. "This was your doing, right?"

Grovyle gulped and nodded. Marowak looked at him. "Well, I'm not going to lie, but you did a good job of roughing these two up. But how are you? Did you receive any medical treatment?"

"Er… not until much later…" he said. He let Marowak look at his arm. She sighed and shook her head.

"Well, it seems that Alex did a number on you too. Pretty bad, but with time it should be fine eventually. I need to thank you though,"

"Huh?"

Marowak looked up, remembering a very long time ago. "Toni," was all she said.

I was confused. Then I remembered our first encounter with Marowak. She had been rather, um, tipsy, par say. But she had mentioned that name at that time, too. "Who is Toni?" I asked.

Marowak looked at me and smiled. "It's a long story- far too long for tonight. Come and see me another at my dojo." She stood up and stretched. "Well, I'm off kiddos. I'll see you later,"

"Um, Ok… good night sensei," I said as she left. Grovyle looked at us.

"Do I want to know any more?"

"Probably not," Tim said. I yawned and laid down, suddenly tired. The other two had dark circles under their eyes, and I probably did too. I put my head on my paws and closed my eyes, murmuring my good-nights.

_Grovyle woke up just before dawn. He looked over at Alex, remembering back when she was still a human. He smiled and looked over to Timothy's bed. He wasn't there. Grovyle got up and grabbed his cloak before heading up above._

_He spotted Timothy on the edge of the bluff, dangling his feet over the edge. Grovyle went and sat next to him. _

"_So… you couldn't sleep?"_

_Tim looked up at Grovyle and nodded. "Yeah… My brain has been racing ever since… well, ha… It's always been racing."_

"_Hm," _

_They were both silent for a while. Then Tim said, "I really like her a lot, you know. I don't know if you're the one to ask, but what should I do? I don't know if she likes me or not, and I don't want to make a fool of myself…"_

_Grovyle grinned. "Don't worry Tim. I have made a fool of myself on more than one occasion, and I'm doing just fine,"_

"_I've made so many mistakes…"_

"_And so have I. Tim, you must understand something. We'll all make at least one big blooper at one point or another. You just have to get past it and live your life." Grovyle said. after a moment, he smiled to himself. "That's something Alex told me a long time ago. Well, really, will tell me in a long time. That's the thing about time travel, though,"_

"_It messes up your perspective of time?"_

"_Exactly,"_

"_By the way, what inspired you?"_

"_Huh?"_

"_Back in the future, or in the future, whatever. Anyway, when we were in front of the passage of time, there really was no hope. Really, we were against Dialga. What made you keep hope?"_

_Tim was quiet for a little while, thinking. "I think that it was Alex. I don't know why, but whenever I'm with her, I feel braver. I remember when we first met, she helped me get back my precious treasure from a pair of thugs. I couldn't stand up for myself, but she did for me."_

"_Alex seems to have that quality," Grovyle said. "When we were traveling in the future together when she was still human, there were quite a few scary situations where she told me not to give up." _

_The two sat in silence, looking up at the fading stars. Timothy turned around and looked at the distant mountains. "Hey, the sun's coming up!"_

_Grovyle turned too. As they watched the sun rise higher, Grovyle said, "The first time I saw the sunrise, I cried. I was moved by its beauty. This is the reason I'm doing what I am doing. To protect the beauty of the world. It's sad that Pokémon like Dusknoir want to stop us. Who would want to live in a world of darkness?"_

"_I certainly wouldn't," Tim said. After a few seconds, they heard Alex begin to stir beneath them._

I woke up, but Tim and Grovyle were gone. I could hear them talking above me on top of the bluff. I decided to be nice and begin breakfast for them. By the time they came back, I had gotten out an apple and a gummi for each of us. We had our meal and then decided on our next course of action.

"I need to collect the Time Gears again." Grovyle said. "After I do, I need to put them in Temporal Tower where Dialga resides."

"I think I heard that Uxie and the others were going to put them back once you were caught," Tim said.

"Why don't we look at the map," I said, pulling mine out. After studying it for several seconds, I said, "Crystal cave is the closest, but Azelf is there. We really don't need the attention."

"Why don't we go to tree shroud forest?" Grovyle suggested. "It's a little farther away, but there's no one like Azelf protecting the Time Gear,"

"Then off we go to the Tree Shroud Forest," I said, rolling up the map and placing it back into my bag. I spotted my old silver ribbon. I had taken it off in the future so as to not lose it or worse. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much longer until I could wear it again. I did have a power band that I could wear, though. I put it around my wrist and then put my cloak on.

"Ready?" I asked. Tim had to re-apply his spots. My 'rings' had stayed, so there was no use to use more of the yellow goo. We still had no idea what it was.

"Ready," Tim and Grovyle said at the same time. We headed out to the tree shroud forest.

The forest had a wide variety of Pokémon I had never met before, including my first Ninetails. She was just a regular Ninetails, but she kept on using fire moves on me, though. Poor thing- she had no idea what I was. I just used one faint attack and she went down.

When we got to the end of the dungeon, though, boy were we in for a surprise. Team Sapphire was there. We had some explaining to do.

"Who are you?" Summer asked.

"I would ask the same," I said, remembering to use my accent. "But because you asked first, I shall answer your question. We are team Dusk. I am Angora, that's Rocco, and that's… well… he's Him…"

"Fair enough. We are Team Sapphire. We were assigned to come check on the Time Gear. Why are you here?"

I was making things up on the fly now. "We… we are sort of investigating the Time Gears… We are from a great distance away, but if it is alright with you, could we perhaps borrow the Time Gear?"

"Are you crazy?" she said, staring at me. "The Tine Gear is what keeps time going around here!"

"Are you certain?" I said, coming closer. "This is what I think." Now I was right up next to her, whispering in her ear. "I think that time is stopped here, and that you were sent to see why it hasn't started again…"

Summer was quite surprised. I had nailed it. "So, if time is stopped here," I continued, "There is no need for the Time Gear to be here, right?"

Summer looked down and nodded. "I suppose when you put it that way… You are right, then. I am sorry for doubting your reasons. Here, I will lead you to the Time Gear,"

Summer trotted off, Quinton staring at her.

"Power of persuasion," I said as I passed him. "Knowing the right things can help make an enemy your friend- and make friends even closer,"

I knew Quinton was probably thinking 'Dude. It's a psychic Umbreon,' but he remained silent and followed Summer.

"Well, here it is," She said, pointing to the Time Gear. "Go ahead. It's all yours. 

Tim/Rocco went up to get it. He grabbed it with simplicity and then hopped down. The only change that any of us noticed was that the surrounding area got a little darker. Then we walked back towards the exit of the foggy forest.

"You know," Summer said as we were about to head our separate ways. "You kind of remind me of someone,"

"Yes, I know of whom you are speaking," I said. I was probably taking a huge risk here, but I didn't care. "The kindly one at the storage told us about her. Alex if I'm not mistaken?"

Summer nodded. "Yeah… she was my best friend… We both had a special ability, and that only made us closer,"

"You speak of Dimensional Scream?" I asked.

"Yes. How did you know, do you have the ability too?"

"No, I have only heard about this ability," I said. "But it is a great honor to meet you. I wish I could have met your friend Alex before she disappeared."

"Hmm…"

"Summer, listen to me," I said, looking at her. "I know that you think I am a little odd, but aren't we all? I have the feeling that you will not need to wait much longer to see your friend again. Have a good evening, you two,"

"Perhaps. You too," she said as she and Quinton headed for the guild. We continued out to the bluff. When we got there, Marowak was waiting for us.

"Hey kiddos," she said. "I was just moving my boxes out of the way for you because I have no idea how long you'll be here, and I found something that may interest you,"

She produced a tall pile of paper. "What is it?" I asked, looking at it. I couldn't read it.

"Old newspapers from back when I was a kid. Take a look through them. You never know- you could find something that could help you. See ya, kiddos!"

"Thank you, sensei," Timothy said. He took the news papers and set them in a corner. "We will get to them."

Marowak nodded and left. I could hear her complaining about how we should really get rid of the bush.

"Well, what now?" Tim said as we sat down on our beds.

"I think that we should find out more about why time is stopped. I have an idea," I said, looking at Tim. I handed him two apples and said, "Go get something for yourself at the bar and find out more from the other explorers."

"Gotcha," he said, heading up the stairs. "See you in about an hour,"

In the time we were waiting, Grovyle told me more about myself before I had turned into a Pokémon. I had given him a lot of insight over the years I had known him.

"A lot of wisdom for a little girl," He said, smiling. "But that's when you would have said something like 'But Grovyle, look at me. I'm growing up now. I'm twice as tall as you and am getting taller. I'm not a little girl anymore,'"

After that, we were quiet until Tim came down the hatch.

"Boy, do I have some news!" he said, panting. "Ok, so I got there and made some apple juice. I sat down at the table next to where Myuki and Sikyatavo usually sit. They were there, so we started talking,"

"About what?"

"Just let me finish! Ok, Alex, for the time being Myuki and Sikyatavo have been running Team Diamond for us. They really want us to come home soon, but their hope is waning. They said that they're also worried and upset that time hasn't started again, even though the Time Gears were put back in place. Even worse," Time said, looking at Grovyle, "Time is stopping in more places. Do you know what that means?"

Grovyle was quiet, and then he said, "Yes. This is not good. Temporal Tower is collapsing."

"And that means…"

"The paralysis of time has already begun. We are running out of time- literally, I think that we are going to need to split up for the time being. I'll continue to collect the Time Gears, and you guys need to find a way to get to Temporal Tower."

"Wait, isn't Temporal Tower where Dialga lives?" Tim asked.

Grovyle nodded. "And that only makes things harder. You see, Dialga has hidden the Temporal Tower in a place called the Hidden land. As the name suggests, no one knows where it is. I think that you should try and find out as much as you can. We may have to consider crossing the sea. Good luck, you two," And with that, Grovyle was gone like the thief in the night that he was.

Tim and I looked each other. "Well…" I said.

"I think that we should go down to the beach to find a way to cross the sea,"

We got down to the beach and sat on the sand. "Well, we're here," Tim said. He looked around. "Hey, that's kind of weird. Usually the Krabby come down in the evening to blow bubbles at the sunset. It's a beautiful sight. You would love it. I wonder where they are today…"

We both watched the sun. "Well, bubbles or not," I said, laying my head on his shoulder, "It is a beautiful scene,"

Tim smiled. Neither of us said anything. We didn't want to spoil this perfect moment. I eventually broke the spell.

"We need to find that Temporal Tower," I said, standing up. "Do you have any ideas?"

I did have one, but I wanted to hear if Tim had anything. "I'm fresh out of ideas, Alex. How about you?"

"Well… yeah…" I said. "I think that we need to get some help for this. I don't just mean Marowak. We need everyone."

Tim nodded. "Yeah. I'm tired of being something that I'm not and running, and I'm sure that you're sick of that phony accent,"

"It's not that bad, is it?" I said. Tim smiled and laughed.

"Ok, but if we're going to go back to the guild, we need to ditch the disguises."

"Right," I said, already starting to rub the goo off of me. It wasn't coming off. "Tim, take a look at the box," I said, starting to gnaw at it. He got the box out and started reading.

"Do not apply to fur, skin or clothing- this product does stain. To remove, scrub vigorously with water,"

"Well, that sucks," I said. Tim looked at me and then an evil smile appeared on his face.

"Oh no…"

"Oh yeah!"

Tim lunged for me and grabbed my leg. Both of us were laughing the entire time as Tim tossed me in the water. It was cold, but I had never felt so alive. He used his paws and scrubbed the goo off. Eventually, I was clean. The yellow goo hadn't left that much of a stain- yes, it was slightly discolored, but it didn't bother me.

I got my hair back into its curls, I helped Tim wash the charcoal spots off of him, and I returned the Silver Ribbon to its rightful place on my head. We were ready to go home.

_But even as we left, we had no idea about what troubles were stirring behind us._

"_Boss, they are alive?"_

"_Chaw-haw. It only wants makes me want my revenge on those two little brats even more,"_

"_Stupid Krabby. No wonder they weren't here. They were scared off by us… hehehe."_

"_Zubat, stay on target. We need to find out more about this Temporal Tower. When we do, we'll be the ones exploring it. The legendary Team Skull!"_


	18. Chapter 17, The Guild's Crew

Chapter 17

The Guild's Crew

Once again, I was having déjà vu. Tim and I stood in front of the tall pink building.

"Mew… this is awkward…" Tim said, stepping onto the grate.

"Pokémon Detected! Pokémon Detected!" Diglett wailed.

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Loudred roared.

"Foot print Riolu, Footprint Riolu!" Diglett replied.

"Rocco, Right?" Loudred shouted. "Ok, get your friend Angora to stand on the grate!"

I looked at Tim and shook my head, smiling. I was thinking, 'Wow. Really?'

But regardless, I went and stood on the grate.

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"Footprint- Wait, that's not Umbreon!" Here it comes… "That's… That's…" I felt the ground underneath me begin to shift as Diglett began to burrow.

"Diglett? Sentry Diglett?" I heard Loudred call. "What is the matter?"

"IT'S ALEX!" he cried. I heard just about everyone in the guild say 'What?' and drop everything. Diglett appeared in front of us with small tears starting to form in his eyes. "It is Alex and Timothy too!"

The door to the guild opened up and everyone came tumbling out, eager to see if Diglett was telling the truth. Tim and I were surrounded within moments, everyone asking a million questions all at once. I smiled and let a tear slip down my face.

"I know you all have questions, but let's get inside. We have some big news," Tim said. We all went inside and closed the door to the guild.

"SKWAAK?" Chatot squealed. We were in the lower level of the guild and we had just told everyone everything. "So, let me get this straight. Dusknoir dragged you into the future, and once you woke up he tried to have you executed. You escaped by the skin of your teeth with the help of Grovyle, and then met up with Timothy's future self, who went by the name of Senior?"

"You got it," I said.

"Ok, so then after that you found Grovyle and took him to the farmer's barn, but then you had to leave immediately after meeting this… Whione person?"

"Yes," Tim said.

"Then after that you met up with Celebi, the Time Travel Pokémon who brought you to a passage of time, where Dusknoir ambushed you and revealed that Alex was once a human from the future and also Whione's sister?"

"Yes,"

"And then you only just made it into the passage of time by the will of Arceus? Then you woke up on the beach and assumed disguises so as not to worry us?"

"Yes,"

"And now Grovyle has begun to collect the Time Gears again while you two search for a place called the hidden land where Dialga lives?"

"You got it," I said. "That's just about it, except you forgot that Grovyle is really the good guy and Dusknoir is really a total, um, well, you could say bad guy, but I prefer to call him something slightly different…"

Everyone was quiet for a very, very long time. Then, Chatot started laughing. "Oh, you two. You must be so tired."

"What do you mean?" Tim asked. "We're telling the truth!"

"Oh please, really?" Chatot said. "The hidden land? Really? I think that you two are simply exhausted and need a good night's sleep,"

"Chatot!" I shouted. "We are telling the truth. I mean, really. Do you really believe that I 'tripped' and fell into the Dimensional hole?"

"Why, yes, I do," Chatot said.

"I did too," Sunflora said, "But now that I think about it, it did look like Dusknoir reached out at Alex…"

"YEAH! He DID grab HER! And THEN Tim TRIED to save ALEX BUT ended UP GETTING SENT to the FUTURE too!"

"When they tell that story, everything suddenly makes sense!" Bidoof said. everyone in the guild started talking at once, arguing.

"QUIET!" Wigglytuff shouted. Everyone became silent and looked at the guild master. "I happen to believe them. I mean, they have a lot of proof."

"I also have one more for you," I said. "We've been gone for six months, right? Ok, then how come my wound from my battle with Grovyle still looks like it's only about two weeks healed?"

Everyone looked at the still-healing gash on my side. "She has a very good point, you know," Chimecho said. "That should have long ago become a scar, but if their story is true, then that also makes perfect sense!"

Chatot looked around. He was beaten. All the apprentices looked back at him. We were waiting for him to confess he was wrong.

"Oh, all right!" he said, flapping his wings. "You got me, ok? Can we just drop it?"

"I think that you owe them an apology," Quinton said. Everyone else agreed.

"I am sorry that I doubted you team diamond and I promise to have more faith in you in the future. There, is that good enough?" he said rather hurriedly. He was so embarrassed at being wrong. We all laughed.

"Ok, guild!" Wigglytuff said. "We are now going to dedicate all of our resources to find the hidden land!"

"We should also go and tell Uxie and the others about Grovyle so they don't freak out, too," Sunflora said. "I'll go tell Uxie and if two others would go and tell the others, then we should be set and ready to go,"

"I'll go," Dugtrio and Corphish said at the same time.

"We also need to let the rest of the town know the truth," Bidoof said. "Golly, I'll head out right now!"

"No, you won't," Chimecho said. "It's getting late, and besides, Alex and Tim must be exhausted. Am I right?"

I hadn't even realized it, but I was extremely tired. "You could say that," I said. Suddenly my stomach started roared. Everyone heard it and laughed.

"Letting your STOMACH BARK at CHIMECHO?" Loudred shouted.

"Ok, so I'm hungry, big deal!" I laughed.

"It's a big deal here," Chimecho said. "In fact, we were just about to sit down for dinner."

"Chimecho's right," Wigglytuff said. "Let's all eat and then do our assignments tomorrow. Is everyone good with that?"

"Yes sir!" everyone shouted. We all ran into the dining room and ate our dinner.

"Arceus, it's been forever since we've slept in here," Tim said as we laid down on our beds. Summer and Quinton were also there, and we were talking the night away.

"So, did you see anyone else that you know in the future?" Summer asked.

"No, but we did meet a Drifblim who said that he will meet us at one point," I said. "He saved me. His name was Lest."

"Cool. I don't know any Drifloon or Drifblim who go by that name, but I'll keep my eyes peeled," Quinton said.

"Well, we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow," Tim said, putting his paws behind his head and closing his eyes. "We need to sleep. Night, guys,"

We all said goodnight and started to fall asleep, but Summer had one final question for me.

"Ok, Alex. You said that you met Timothy's future self- but what about you?"

I hadn't given that fact a thought in a while. "No, we didn't find myself, and Senior never mentioned me, either," I said. "But everyone was calling me Jet. I don't know if that had anything to do with that, though,"

"Ok then," Summer said, rolling over. "Night- Jet,"

"Don't you even start," I said as I closed my eyes. I was asleep within several seconds.

_"Hey, what's the matter, Jet?"_

_ "We failed, Tim! We couldn't do it! It's my fault!"_

_ "Jet, what are you doing? Get back from there!"_

_ "Good bye, Timothy… It was nice knowing you, but I can't live with myself. Not after a failure like that,"_

_ "Jet, NO!"_

I woke up with a start. I looked around. Everyone was still asleep. It was still before dawn. I thought about trying to go back to sleep, but disregarded it. I got up silently and exited from the guild. Even Chatot didn't stir when I passed him on his perch on the top rung of the ladder that led down to the first floor.

I walked down to the beach. I was completely alone. I sat down and watched the waves. I thought about the dream that I had. I hadn't really seen anything- I had only heard voices. One of the voices had been Tim's but Jet's was different from mine. Her voice was a little higher than mine. I wondered what they had been talking about.

I mean, it sounded like Jet had jumped off of a cliff or something!

A little while later, the sun started to show its face above the horizon behind me. It was time to go back to the guild.

I woke Chatot up this time when I entered the guild. He asked me where I had been.

"I just went down to the beach to clear my head."

"Hm. Did you have a nightmare?"

I nodded. Chatot said, "Yes, I thought so. Sometimes after a traumatic experience, we will have dreadful nightmares for weeks after it happened. I should know- I've experienced trauma before,"

"Yeah, Wigglytuff's near explosion?"

"Far worse, Alex. But that is none of your business at this time. Come, we must wake the rest of the guild up before-"

"UP AND AT 'EM! IT'S MORNING!"

"That?"

"Exactly,"

"Ok, everyone. Let's get to it today!"

"HURRAH!"

We all spread out to do our duties. Tim and I had no idea where to start our search.

"Why not try the town elder?" Wigglytuff suggested. "You should be able to find him at the Hot Springs,"

"Wait, the Hot Springs?" I asked. "Do you mean Torkoal, that old dude?"

"That's the one!" Wigglytuff said in his nonchalant way. I looked at Tim.

"I still haven't said sorry from the last time we went there,"

"Then now's your time!" he said, smiling. "Let's go!"

"Wait, do I have to get into the water?"

Tim sighed. "Yes, you do. Come on. It's only as bad as you think it to be. If you trick your brain into thinking it's not water, you'll find that it's not that bad. Give it a try, please?"

Yeah, I got into the water. I didn't really enjoy it a whole lot at first, but I did feel quite relaxed once we were there for a little while.

"Hello children," Torkoal said. "I see that you have returned to the Hot Springs, place of rest and relaxation," His voice was kindly and slow. **(Think of Wisebeard from the LORD OF THE RINGS)**

"Hello, Mr. Torkoal," I said. "I'm sorry about last time we were here. I had no idea that you-"

"The past is behind us," he said. "And so is that. Come now, children. What have you come to ask me about?"

"Well, the thing is," Timothy said, "We've come to ask about some old legends and folk lore,"

"What do you need to know?"

"We want to know about the Hidden Land," I said.

"Ah, yes… The Hidden Land," Torkoal said. "Yes, I have heard a legend about that particular place,"

"Ok, can you please tell us what you know? This is rather urgent and we are running out of time," I said.

"Of course," Torkoal said. "What I know is that this place lies in a secluded place that only a certain Pokémon named Lapras can get to. And the only way to summon Lapras is…" Torkoal stopped. He looked at the waters for a long time.

"The way to summon Lapras is…" Tim said, impatient.

"Um… Well, let's see now… Ah, yes! You need proof! Proof to show that you're worthy!"

"And what kind of proof is that?"

"Um…" Torkoal said again. He looked at the water again. "I am sorry, I seem to have forgotten,"

"Ugh… Ok, then. Thank you, Torkoal…" I said, rather unhappy.

"If I do remember anything, I will be certain to come by your guild and tell you," He said. "And any time, come and see me again here. Wash away your fatigue, ok?"

"Yes sir," Tim said as we stepped out of the Hot Springs. I shook myself dry, getting Tim wet in the process. He laughed and shook himself dry, getting me a little wet.

When we got back to Treasure Town, we got a big surprise. Just about the entire town was waiting for us with banners saying 'Welcome Home Alex and Timothy!" I felt so blessed to live in a small town where we could actually do something like this- unlike a huge city where the only way you get recognized is by being famous.

We all had a huge party in Spinda's Café, where Spinda was making drinks as fast as he could spin. The party lasted until late in the evening, and then we had to report back to the guild. No one had found out very much concerning the Hidden Land. Tim and I told what we had discovered from Torkoal, but it really didn't amount to much.

We didn't have dinner that night- we were all stuffed from the fruity concoctions that Spinda had made. None of it was fermented, but we were all still rather tired.

The next morning arrived, and we all stood at attention, waiting for our orders.

"Continue your investigations, apprentices," Chatot said. "that is all. Dismissed."

Everyone went out to their respective duties. Timothy and I were discussing our next course of action when Diglett's siren went off.

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?"

"The footprint is of Torkoal, the Town Elder! The footprint is of Torkoal, the Town Elder!"

The elderly Pokémon was still trying to catch his breath. "I've been running through the night, trying to get here to you," he said, looking at us. "It wasn't even an hour after you left that I remembered something,"

"Really? What was it?" I asked. The entire guild was assembled on the first floor of the guild.

"Well, it's nothing much," he said. "I wonder if it was even worth it to come tell you,"

"Any small detail helps," Wigglytuff said.

"Ok, so this is what I remembered- the proof that one needs to summon Lapras is borne on an inscription of some sort,"

"Well, what kind of inscription?" I asked.

"Um, er… it's kind of hard to explain it…" Torkoal said. "I mean, it's really more of a pattern. A pattern that you rarely see,"

'A strange inscription?' I thought to myself. 'The kind of pattern you rarely see… A pattern…'

"Wait!" I said. I looked over at Timothy. He had long since taken off his Relic Fragment and put it into his bag for safe-keeping. But that was it. Timothy's Relic Fragment was the key to the hidden land! I was sure of it! "Tim! Your Relic Fragment!"

Tim looked at me a little strangely, but pulled out the small stone and showed it to Torkoal anyway.

"By Ho-Oh's legend, that's it!" Torkoal said, shocked.

I knew it. I was so happy and excited. We could go to the Hidden Land! I actually went up to Tim and gave him a big lick on his cheek

"Chatot! We have seen that inscription before!" Wigglytuff said.

"… Yes sir… At Brine Cave…" Chatot stuttered nervously. "But, sir! That's where those bandits live!"

"I know… But it's ok. I have something that I need to do tonight, so I want you to send off the rest of the guild tomorrow for Brine Cave."

"Sir, I wish to go too!"

"No, Chatot. I can never let you go through that kind of danger ever again. I am sorry, but I don't want you to go,"

"But sir, that is why I must go!" Chatot said. After a pause, Wigglytuff agreed to let Chatot go.

"But on a condition. You must go with Team Diamond. Show them where we saw the strange pattern."

"Thank you sir," Chatot said. Then he remembered that everyone was still standing there. "What are you all staring at? Go and pack your bags for the exploration tomorrow!"

Everyone scuttled off to the town to get ready. But before we could go, Chatot stopped Tim and me.

"Did you hear that? You two will be coming with me. Don't hold me back, but don't expect me to do everything for you, either!"

"Um, yes sir…" I said.

_During this time…_

_Torkoal was walking happily down the steep steps of the guild, talking to himself._

"_Oh, to be young again…" He sighed. "If I was, I would certainly be going with them…"_

"_What did you say, geezer?" A voice said. Torkoal turned and saw three Pokémon coming towards him. They surrounded him and guided him to a secluded area a short way from town. _

Tim and I left the guild to get our bags packed. But as we started to leave Kangashkan's storage, Tim got an idea.

"Hey, Alex. Let's go to Sharpedo bluff! You never know- Grovyle may be there!"

So, we did. Grovyle wasn't there, but there was a letter. It was in the same language that the etching in the jail cell in the future was in, so I read it.

"Dear Tim and Alex~ How goes your search for the Hidden land? I have collected three Time Gears. I actually met one of the guild apprentices- Sunflora?- who was on her way back from the Fogbound Lake. Thank you for sending the apprentices to let the lake guardians know that I was coming and telling them the truth. It's heartening to know that more and more Pokémon are coming to trust us, but I will continue to stay away from Treasure Town. I'm not certain everyone trusts us completely or not yet, and Dusknoir is liable to return from our time at any time. If we do see each other again at this point, it will be here at the bluff or down at the beach. Best wishes~ Grovyle."

"Well then let's go down to the beach!" I said. So, that's what we did. We went down to the beach.


	19. Chapter 18, Lapras

Chapter 18

Lapras

No one was on the beach. "Well, it was worth a try." I said as we sat down. We looked out over the waves. The Krabby were not there again, but Tim and I didn't mind.

He sighed and said, "It stinks that the Krabby aren't here again. I wonder where they've all gone?"

For a while we sat in silence. "You know, Alex?" Tim said eventually. "It was here that our adventure started, wasn't it? You helped me get back my Relic Fragment from Koffing and Zubat way back then. Now, the same Relic Fragment will be helping us get to the Hidden Land,"

"Let's hope that this isn't our last adventure, though," I said.

"No kidding. I don't know what I would do if you left me,"

He may have been about to say something, but something had caught my eye. As I looked closer, I thought I could see something moving across the horizon.

"Tim, do you see that?" I asked.

He paused and also looked. "Yeah," he said. "It… It looks like a Pokémon, but I can't tell what it is. Oh well…"

"Should we head back to the guild?" I asked after the figure on the horizon disappeared from view.

"Yeah," Tim said. We got up and left the beach.

_Guess who was listening? Team Skull, of course. They had scared the Krabby away again and listened in on our conversation. Jerks._

_ "Whoa-ho! How long will it take those dim-wits to figure out that we've been scaring off those Krabby?"_

_ "Well, that geezer wasn't lying, that's for sure."_

_ "Who knew that that stupid rock we've been after for so long would have connection to the Hidden Land?"_

_ "Yeah, we need to get it. We will be the ones who explore the Hidden Land. Team Diamond don't deserve to, Chaw-haw-ha!"_

"Well, as you have all noticed, the Guild Master is still out on his errand," Chatot said after dinner. "As soon as we wake up in the morning, we will be leaving for the Brine Cave. Goodnight, everyone,"

"Goodnight,"

_The strange silhouette pushed her way through the cold water towards the shore. The lone form of her old friend stood waiting._

_ "Hello Lapras," He said as she approached._

_ "Hello, Wigglytuff," she said. "It has been a long time. I trust that you have kept Chatot out of trouble?"_

_ "Of course! But I'm afraid that I won't be able to keep your secret any more. The Relic Fragment has been found by one of my guild apprentices. As you know, time has been going out of whack. Lapras, I need you to tell me about that strange back in Brine Cave,"_

Wigglytuff still hadn't returned by morning as we had hoped. "So, I will be taking the Guild Master's place!" Chatot said excitedly.

Everyone was silent. We all looked at each other.

"What's wrong?" Chatot asked. He looked at each of us in turn. "Do you think of me as unfit to lead you?"

"No, that's not it," Summer said.

"It's just that, well," Said Sunflora

"Without the Guild Master, it feels less safe," Bidoof continued.

"But if the Guild Master isn't here," Chimecho continued.

"Then it is your job to lead us!" I exclaimed. We all smiled. "So, Chatot, lead the way!" I said.

So we headed out to Brine Cave. It actually wasn't that far from Treasure Town. When we got there, Chatot turned to us.

"Now, as Wigglytuff said yesterday, there are viscous bandits who live in this dungeon."

"Well, what kinds of attacks did they use?" Tim asked.

"Um… well, to tell the truth… I really don't remember…" Chatot said. Sounds like I'm not the only one suffering from amnesia. "I mean, it was as if they appeared out of nowhere… Wait, that was it! There was a wall of water, and then the next thing I knew Wigglytuff was tending my wounds…"

"Well, at least we know that they use water type moves," Sunflora said.

"That's not good for us, though," Dugtrio said, looking at me and his son. "We are weak against the water,"

"Ok then. What do you think you should do?"

"Not bunch up on types when we are picking out our groups?"

"Exactly," Chatot said. Turning to Tim and me, he continued, "Ok, you two. Guild Master Wigglytuff told us to go together, so we can go now. Are you ready?"

"Yes sir," I said, thinking, "Oh great, here we go…"

Brine Cave was the roughest dungeon so far for me. There were a lot of water types in there, so I let Tim and Chatot take care of them. Chatot knows an amazing move called Mirror Move, where he turns his body into a mirror to reflect any move to the opponent. I had a good idea. I had Chatot use Mirror Move, and then I used flamethrower. It bounced back and hit me. I felt so smart- I had just powered up my fire type moves.

We reached the half-way point. There was a Kangashkan rock there, but like all the other ones at a half-way point, we couldn't do anything with it.

"Chatot, why is this Kangashkan Rock here?" I asked.

"That would be because if you pass out in the middle of the next half of the dungeon or against the boss of the dungeon, instead of being sent home, you just get sent back here."

"Oh. I didn't know that. Ok then. Let's head out!"

But even as I said that, I saw movement in the corner of my eye. I turned- too late. Skuntank had a Night-Slash ready for my face. I screamed in pain, falling down to the ground. I saw Koffing and Zubat wrestling with Tim for his bag. Chatot stood where he was, stunned in silence.

"T-t-team Skull?" he stuttered. "What is going on here?"

"Eat your heart out, nit-wit," Skuntank said. I looked up at him, seething. I stood up. Something came over me. I closed my eyes and started to use Extrasensory on all three of them. But I forgot that Skuntank was also dark-type, so my amazing psychic-type move had no effect on him. But it did knock out Koffing and Zubat. I saw the Relic Fragment begin to roll. Skuntank caught it with one of his paws.

"Come on, you two weaklings," He called out to his Hench-men. "Let's go,"

They got up unsteadily and followed their leader. We watched them go. Chatot- oh boy- he was just about to explode.

"… Squawk… Nit-wit… Mew…" was all we heard. Then Chatot spread his wings and took off after Team Skull. Tim and I looked after them.

"We need to go after them!" I said, starting to run after Team Skull and Chatot. He was about a second behind me as we went further into the dungeon.

This time, the going was even rougher. We didn't have Chatot with us this time, so… yeah; let's just say we used more than one Reviver Seed...

We reached the bottom. Team Skull was there. They were in pretty bad shape- and it wasn't from my Extrasensory.

"Holy Miltank, are you ok? Did those bandits get you?" I asked, going over to Skuntank. Tim came over by me, glaring down at his nemesis.

"Chaw… haw…" He sighed. "so… you knew about… them…. Well, that… would have been nice… to know… Chaw haw… ow..."

"You're in pain," I stated. I grabbed one of our Oran berries and tried to feed him. Skuntank shook his head.

"No, you are going to need it… Arceus… That Chatot… he came in after those bandits roughed us up… boy, did he have some choice words for us… I'm still seeing red… Those words are enough to keep me going…"

"We're not about to leave you if you need our help, no matter what you've done," Tim said.

"Chaw haw… you two have gone through downright rotten times because of us- especially you, Tim. And yet, you're still going to help us?"

"Of course!" Tim said. "That's what real explorers do, you know,"

Skuntank was silent for a very long time. I was worried that he had passed out again, but I saw his paw moving to his bag. He reached in and pulled something out. He threw it a small ways away. The Relic Fragment fell into the water. Tim went over and pulled it out.

"Skuntank, you get your team out, ok? Promise me?"

"Of course, Tim. But you two really need to be worrying about your Chatot,"

"You're right!" I said, jumping up. I looked at Tim and we nodded. We started to run.

"Good-bye, Team Skull!" Tim and I shouted over our shoulders.

_"Mew, I must be a piece of work," Skuntank said to himself. He looked over to his partners. They were both unconscious. Skuntank knew that it was his own pride that had gotten them into this situation. And he would use every last ounce of strength to get them out of it._

_ He was proud of himself, too. He did have a little bit of good in him. And he knew that once they got out of there, he would build on it._

We found Chatot. He was still fuming. "Be quiet, you two," He said without even turning. "I saw the bandits' retreating figures, but I lost sight of them once I got here,"

Tim and I looked around. We saw no sign of any other Pokémon. Chatot stared blankly ahead.

"Chatot, there's nothing here," I said. Suddenly Chatot looked up.

"Team Diamond! Watch out!" he shouted. Tim and I didn't even have time to look up before they were upon us. Two Omastar and a Kabutops. They were already powering up a move. I closed my eyes, ready to be washed away. Instead, there was nothing.

Chatot had taken the entire attack for us. He was down on the ground, almost completely unconscious. He muttered, "You won't get them… They're our prized… recruits…" And then he passed out.

"Hey, look," one of the Omastar said. "It's that guy!"

"What guy?"

"That guy, remember? He did the same thing last time, too!"

"What?"

"Protected his partners!"

"Shut up, you dolts!" the Kabutops shouted. He turned to Tim and me. "Well well, prized recruits, eh? Let's see if you are as good as your beloved Chatot believes you are!"

We had no idea what we were doing. We just kind of dodged and got in a hit whenever possible. Which wasn't that often. Eventually, the two Omastar had Tim cornered, and Kabutops had me pinned up against the wall with one of his clawed feet. He drew back one of his scythe-like arms. They were razor sharp. I closed my eyes as he swung.

But before the attack landed, he was knocked off balance by a Razor-Leaf. I looked to my side. Summer, Quinton, Grovyle, and Wigglytuff were standing there, ready for a fight. Summer leapt up, doing a somersault over Kabutops. She dropped a heavy maelstrom of Seed Bomb on him. Kabutops dropped me, roaring in pain. He tried to get away from Summer's onslaught of grass-type attacks with no avail. Eventually, he called off the two Omastar and retreated to the depths of the cave.

"And don't let me ever catch you messing with my friends again!" she shouted after them. Tuning back to us she smiled. We were just all staring at her. She had taken out three bandits that Chatot, Tim, and I couldn't get combined. "It's the type advantage, ok? Get over it. OMA! Chatot!"

We all gathered around Chatot's broken form. Wigglytuff tenderly picked him up and cradled him like a baby. Chatot opened his eyes slightly. "Guild Master?"

"It's me, Chatot," Wigglytuff replied, "It's ok,"

"I feel like a fool…" Chatot said. "To be knocked out by the same opponents again…"

The other members of the guild arrived and gathered around too. Sunflora blushed slightly as she went to stand next to Grovyle. Every eye was on Chatot.

"No, you weren't knocked out last time," Wigglytuff said. "Last time, you saved me… Please stay with us, Chatot. We need you,"

Chatot was silent before saying, "I-I-I… I'm such… such a happy… happy Pokémon…" then his body went limp. Chimecho and Sunflora burst out into tears. Grovyle silently made his way over to the Guild Master. He laid one of his scaly claws on Chatot's head.

"He's alive!" he said with a small tone of surprise in his voice. "Get him back to the guild right now, and you may be able to save him!"

Wigglytuff nodded and stood up. He looked aged beyond his years. "I'll get Marowak to look at him," he said.

"We'll go too!" Tim said, taking a step forward.

"No. You two continue on with Grovyle, or else Chatot's sacrifice will have been for nothing."

"Yes sir," Tim said sadly. We both looked at the other guild apprentices. "I guess this is good-bye for now then," Tim said. Everyone nodded.

"Well, we'll be seeing you later then," I said. I looked at each of my friends in turn. "Bye, everyone!"

I turned with Grovyle and Tim and headed into the depths of the cave. Little did I know it, but that was my good-bye.

"So, how did you find us there?" Tim asked.

"Wigglytuff found me and told me that you guys were probably going to be in the Brine Cave. Which was good timing because I was planning to join you anyway,"

"Does that mean that you found all five Time Gears?" I asked.

"Yes, I did. If you didn't get my message that I left in Sharpedo Bluff, thanks again for sending those apprentices to the Lake Guardians,"

"It wasn't even our idea- it was Sunflora's," I said.

"Yeah, I talked with her a little bit on the way to Uxie's lake. She seems to be a really nice girl. I think that she likes me- but then again, I never mentioned Celebi to her…"

"Poor thing,"

"Hey, here we are!" Tim said. The cave opened out into a small grotto with a beautiful view of the sea. I was surprised. The sun was already setting. I had completely lost track of time. I turned around and was taken aback.

"Guys, look at this!" I said. The other two turned and saw what I was looking at. It was a beautiful wall mural. It wasn't really a picture, though. It was a much more complex version of Timothy's Relic Fragment, with so many more swirls and loops inter-wound around the main pattern.

"Wow," was all any of us could say. Timothy finally reached into his bag and pulled out the fragment. Suddenly, the wall and the fragment started to glow.

"It's like they're reacting to each other!" I said.

"They probably are, smarticle," Grovyle said. The moment he said that, an immensely bright beam of light shot out of the wall, out through the hole in the grotto. Then, as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. The three of us were left to rub the sting out of our eyes.

"Hello," said a voice at the entrance of the grotto. We all opened our eyes and stared. A blue Pokémon was waiting in the water. She had a grey shell on her back that had several protruding lumps in it. "I am Lapras," she continued. "Wigglytuff has already told me who you are, Alex, Timothy and Grovyle, yes?"

"Uh, yeah," Grovyle said. "Wait, Wigglytuff?"

"I will explain once we are on our way to the Hidden Land,"

"Wait, you're the Lapras that has access to the Hidden Land?"

"Yes. Now, please, step onto my back,"

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I mean, I don't want you to sink or something… I'm not a huge fan of water…"

"Oh, have no fear, Alex. I can carry you three and more. Now, we need to be going now. Off we go!"

_Back at the guild, Marowak came out of Chatot's recovery room with good news._

_ "I expect a full recovery by next week," she said. Everyone let out a huge sigh of relief._

_ "GOOD!" Loudred said. "I don't KNOW WHAT I would DO without CHATOT AROUND!"_

_ "No kidding," Chimecho said. "Wigglytuff's guild isn't Wigglytuff's guild without Chatot."_

_ Everyone started talking at once. Then someone asked, "What do all of you think that Team Diamond is up to?"_

_ "Probably sleeping," replied someone else._

_ "Maybe," Wigglytuff said. "But where ever they are, they are in the compatible fins of Lapras,"_

_ "Ok, so who is that?"_

"I met Wigglytuff way back when he was still a spunky little explorer," Lapras said. "he and Chatot were investigating the pattern at the back of the Brine Cave. But that's when trouble started…"

_"Those bandits came and attacked us," Wigglytuff explained. "Chatot took the first blow for me, and I sent those three packing after that. But I didn't know what to do! My partner was unconscious, there on the floor. But that's when Lapras arrived._

"I hadn't intended on showing myself at all," Lapras told us. "But when I saw Chatot down like that, I couldn't help but help them out. After we were done, I made Wigglytuff swear that he wouldn't investigate the pattern anymore, though,"

"What did he do?"

_"Of course I agreed!" Wigglytuff laughed. "A good explorer always keeps their word. But when I heard old Torkoal's story, and Timothy's Relic Fragment, that connected everything together. I went out to see Lapras, and she explained everything to me. But none of that is your business, apprentices. From now on, this is Team Diamond's fight. May all the deities bless them."_


	20. Chapter 19, The Hidden Land

Chapter 19

The Hidden Land

I woke up much later than Loudred would have ever allowed. "How are we doing, Lapras?" I asked.

"Just fine," she said.

"Ok, Grovyle, so what do we do once we get to the Hidden Land?"

"Ask Lapras," he said. So we did.

"You need to find the Temple of the Rainbow Stoneship," she said. "From there, you will have your ride to Temporal Tower,"

"Ok, and then what?"

Grovyle answered this one, "Well, we need to get to the top of the tower. Once there, we will need to place the Time Gears into their places,"

"Sounds easy enough,"

"Hardly so. Dialga will be waiting for us up there, and he will attack us. We're going to need to knock Dialga out,"

We stared at Grovyle. "Are you crazy?"

"Well, what other choice do we have?"

After that little exchange, we were quiet for almost the rest of the trip. Well, except for the every once in a while "Are we there yet?"

"Are we there yet?"

"Are we there yet?"

"Actually, we are!" Lapras finally said. I climbed on top of her head to get a better view. I wondered if this is like what Sikyatavo feels like when he rides on my head.

Everyone was facing forward. "Do you see that place up ahead where the sea looks kind of different?" Lapras asked. Everyone nodded.

"The sea is sparkling and glowing," Grovyle said.

"That is where the sea of time begins," Lapras said. "You see, the Hidden Land is nearly impossible to find because it is hidden in time itself- in between the parts of a split second. Ok, guys, hold on tight, because here we go!"

Lapras put her head down a little bit and sped up. We hit the shining spot in the water and she began to move even faster, and faster and faster. I happened to look down. We were no longer in the water.

"We're flying!" I said.

"No, this isn't flying," Grovyle said. "We are crossing the sea of time!"

Now there was a big cloud ahead of us. Lapras continued to move at an incredible speed as she passed through it. I felt a faint tingling sensation as we did. What I saw next took my breath away.

"This… This…" was all Grovyle could say.

"Yes," Lapras said for him. "This is the Hidden Land."

The Hidden Land was floating in the middle of space. It looked like a huge island. Red lightning could be seen curling around its underside. I wondered if that had anything to do with keeping it suspended in the middle of air. Beyond that, I could see a dark blue tower, also suspended in space. That was probably Temporal Tower.

"Ok, children," Lapras said. "Get ready to land,"

Once we had landed, Lapras told us, "This is far as I can accompany you, Alex, Timothy, and Grovyle,"

"Thank you for getting us this far," Tim said.

"You are welcome," Lapras said. "Now, as I told you earlier, you will need to find the temple of the Rainbow Stoneship. There, you will find your ride up to Temporal Tower,"

"Where will we find this temple?" Grovyle asked.

"Well, if you go down that path straight ahead," she said, indicating the small road in front of us, "You can't miss it. There are no branching parts, either, so you can't get lost. Good luck, I'll be waiting for your return!"

So, we started down the path. It was even longer than Brine Cave- we had to stop for a meal twice! And that was just the first half of the dungeon, too. We stopped for the evening at the mid-way point, not knowing of the trouble and tears still ahead.

We continued on our way the next morning. I had a deep, refreshing and dreamless sleep the night before, and I felt so alive and ready for our upcoming battle with Dialga. Oh, if only I knew at that time what other battles I would face that day.

Eventually, the path that we had been following led into a long corridor. We stopped and looked at the pictures on the walls. There were pictures of Pokémon, murals of people, and people and Pokémon together. One picture intrigued me in particular. It had a girl and a mid-sized black Pokémon next to her. They were both staring up at the sky, but instead of the sun, it appeared to be the moon shining. In all appearances, the mural was during the day though. That's when I remembered something.

I looked at the caption beneath the ancient painting. It was similar to the writing that was in the jail cell in the future. I read out loud: "I have at one time dreamed of the day when the moon shall shine brighter than the sun, silver will be worth more than gold, black will recover it's purity, and we shall live in peace forever…"

"Alex, let's go!" Tim called from up ahead. I trotted up to them and walked outside. There was a tall set of stairs that lead above us. We started climbing. We were rather tired when we got to the top, but we only rested for a few seconds. I noticed a large stone panel, as did Grovyle. We went over to it and read it. It took Grovyle a little while longer to read it than me, but when we were done, Grovyle told Tim what it had said.

"It seems that the temple itself is the Rainbow Stoneship," he said. Grovyle looked at the ground and pointed. We looked too and gasped. The floor that we were standing on had the most ornate version of Timothy's simple Relic Fragment. There were actually smaller versions of the pattern inside of the larger one. Grovyle went to the center and brushed away a little bit of dirt, revealing a small hollow.

"Here," Grovyle said. "The Relic Fragment goes here,"

Tim nodded and went to place the fragment in its spot. But as fate would have it, he didn't make it.

"Stop! That is enough!" the voice boomed. A cold shiver ran down my spine as six Sableye ran up the stairs and surrounded us. I looked to the side. Dusknoir was floating up the steps, an evil smile on his face. "Well well, who do we have here?"

"Dusknoir!" I shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, if you think about it, wouldn't it be easier for Master Dialga to warp us here directly instead of having to search for you?"

I growled. He was right. Dusknoir commanded his Sableye to lead us down the stairs. It wasn't as far as the other set of stairs, and it led to a small landing. My blood chilled when I saw what was there.

"It's a Dimensional Hole!" Timothy shouted. I had a comment for him, but that would have been rude. Besides, Dusknoir had started gloating.

We really weren't listening. The three of us looked at each other and nodded. All at once, we each took out two Sableye with one of our moves.

"So, you resist?" Dusknoir said. The Sableye got back up and readied their attacks. "Then, we will fight! You will lose, and I shall be the victor!"

And thus, the battle began. I had a good flame thrower for about half of the Sableye, and Tim and Grovyle easily took care of the rest with a consecutive Wide Slash (a TM that Tim recently learned) and Leaf Blade.

I looked around for Dusknoir. I didn't see him behind me, hiding in my shadow. He grabbed my leg and threw me a ways away. I crashed into a bush that had sharp thorns in it. I got pricked a lot, but I didn't really care. I only wanted to get back in the fight.

While that was happening, Tim and Grovyle had started attacking Dusknoir. Dig, Force Palm, Bite, Leaf Blade… And then I came up from behind with a good Faint Attack. Dusknoir went down, flat on his face. I rejoined Tim and Grovyle.

"Well, we… we did it…" I said.

"You're bleeding," Tim said, staring at me.

"I'll live," I said. We looked back at Dusknoir. He had started to move. Quite suddenly, he got up, eye blazing, mouth wide open.

"YOU CAN NEVER WIN!" he shouted. A sudden gust of wind made me realize what he was doing.

"He's charging up Shadow Ball!" I said. A ball of dark energy started to form. I suddenly had a good idea. I whispered it to Tim and Grovyle.

"Are you sure?" Tim asked.

"The Shadow Ball could absorb it and send it back at us," Grovyle said.

"Do we have any other choices?" I shouted.

"HERE IT COMES! SHADOW BALL!" Dusknoir yelled. He was going crazy. He fired the move at us.

I drew my head back and let lose a huge Flamethrower that started to curl. Welcome Fire-Spin to my move set. The huge vortex consumed the Shadow Ball. Timothy used the move Dark Pulse for the first time, and that wrapped around the vortex. Grovyle sent it back the other direction with a good, strong Leaf Blade. It all went back and hit Dusknoir, all going into his stomach. There was a bright flash of light.

Once we could see again, Dusknoir was leaning over in pain. Smoke was actually pouring from his stomach. I wondered blankly if he would explode or something. Instead, he laid down on the ground, exhausted of all his energy.

All the poor Sableye, after seeing what had happened, scrambled to get to the Dimensional Hole. One by one, they all hopped in, back to their own time.

Grovyle went up to Dusknoir and gently poked him with his clawed foot. Dusknoir didn't respond. Grovyle looked up at Timothy. "Go and see if the Rainbow Stoneship actually works," He told him. Tim nodded and ascended the stairs.

I stayed with Grovyle to watch Dusknoir. Dusknoir started to move a little bit.

"Don't even try," Grovyle said. "We have you surrounded,"

Dusknoir was quiet for a little while, and then he said, "Is this what you truly want?"

"Huh? Wh-what do you mean?" I asked.

Dusknoir looked up at me. He knew that he was about to hit home.

"Don't listen to him," Grovyle said rather nervously.

"Alex, think about it. We are from the future. If you do this, the world of the future will be changed. Disappear. Therefore, we will also disappear,"

I looked at Grovyle. My heart was beating fast. "He's lying! He has to be!" I cried.

Grovyle was quiet for a long time. Eventually, he explained everything to me. "No, he is telling the truth. You wouldn't remember that though. But it is worth it- don't you see? We will be protecting the world- Saving the planet for future generations!"

I thought it over for a little while, and then said, "I understand, Grovyle. Yes, it is worth it. We need to save this world- even if it means sacrificing ourselves,"

Grovyle nodded, and then a shadow crossed his face as he looked up to the top of the temple. "I'm glad that you still hold the same resolve, but… When we came from the future the first time, we had nothing to lose- nothing to go back to. But now… That changed for you when you lost your memory. You met Timothy. If you were to disappear, Timothy… he would be crushed…"

Tears started to form at the corners of my eyes. "I finally understand…" I said. "If I disappear from here, Tim will… Timothy will be left… All alone…" I turned and looked up to the top of the temple. "Oh, Timothy,"

_Timothy made it to the top of the temple. There was a soft breeze that fluttered over his face. He looked around to make sure that there were no other Sableye ready to ambush him. When he was content, he took the Relic Fragment out of his bag. He took it over to the hollow and set it in. The next instant, all of the beautiful artwork started to glow. The Relic Fragment had fit in perfectly and activated the Rainbow Stoneship._

Grovyle and I looked to the top of the Temple, momentarily forgetting what our fate was.

"He's done it!" I said.

Even the brief second that our attention was drawn to the top of the temple gave Dusknoir enough time to make his move. He sprung up and smacked me several yards away. All I could do was watch in horror as he launched a wicked-looking Dark Pulse at me. All I saw out of the corner of my eye was a green and red blur running.

The Dark Pulse exploded on impact with Grovyle.

I rushed up to him, tears streaming from my eyes. His chest was scorched. He looked at me for a while, eyes blank. Dusknoir had fallen down again, laughing in his psychotic way.

Slowly, painfully, Grovyle stood up. His eyes started to glow. I didn't know it at the time, but that was his Overgrow ability activating. He roared and charged at Dusknoir. Grovyle grabbed both of his arms and held him in an arm lock.

"Alex, I can never come back here," he said. "I am taking Dusknoir back to the future!"

"Grovyle, Unhand me!" Dusknoir boomed.

"No, Grovyle!" I shouted.

"Ok, team, we're ready to-" Tim said, stepping lightly down the steps. He had no idea what had just happened, and he suddenly stopped. "What's going on?"

"Timothy, I can never come back here!" Grovyle said. "Take care of Alex- for me,"

"But, Grovyle! I can't replace you!"

"You can, and you will!" he shouted. "You are the greatest of combinations, and don't you ever forget it!"

Grovyle hoisted Dusknoir up, ready to take him back to the future. Tim made a small sound, like a whimpering creature.

"Alex," Grovyle said, looking at me. "You need the Time Gears- they're in my bag over there,"

"Please Grovyle," I whispered. "Don't leave us,"

"Alex, though parting is the sweetest sorrow- the rest is in your hands!"

And with that, they disappeared into the future. The Dimensional Hole cut out and disappeared. Tim and I stood in stunned silence. Eventually, Tim went over to Grovyle's bag, which had been cast aside like a forgotten doll. The Time Gears had spilled out.

"Grovyle… wait for us… in the future…" Timothy said as he picked up a Time Gear. Tears started to cloud my vision as Tim turned to me. "Alex, I think I know what Grovyle meant when he said that 'parting is the sweetest sorrow,'. You and Grovyle were friends for a long time. It must have been really hard for him to leave,"

Timothy picked up another Time Gear. I was thinking: 'That may have been what he meant, but no. it wasn't. Grovyle wasn't talking about him and me- he was talking about me and Timothy… Once we save the world, I would be gone.

I looked down and noticed one of the Time Gears had rolled by my foot. I picked it up and looked at it. I absently realized that this was the first time I had ever held one of the Time Gears. Tim appeared in front of me, bag in his paws. I set the Time Gear into the bag and nodded.

"Grovyle did what he did so that we could continue the mission," I said. I looked up. The sound from the Rainbow Stoneship was getting louder. It was ready to blast off. Tim and I met gazes and we nodded. We climbed up the steps to where the Rainbow Stoneship waited. I let one final tear fall.


	21. Chapter 20, The Final Adventure

Chapter 20

The Final Adventure

When Tim and I made it to the top of the temple, the Rainbow Stoneship was glowing brightly. Tim and I stepped on with just enough time to spare. The ship shook itself free of its chains and started to hover. Then, without warning, it shot up. We broke through the clouds, taking in the beauty of the scene in front of us.

The Temporal Tower stood tall, but a huge red cloud swirled right above it. I looked behind us.

"Well, no wonder it's called the Rainbow Stoneship!" I said. Tim also turned and looked. A beautiful rainbow was flowing from the ship as it moved forward, showing the trail that we had been taking.

In a matter of minutes we were at the path that lead to the tower.

"I hope that it stays there," Tim said.

"I think that it will until we get back on," I said, forgetting for at least a short while about my eminent disappearance.

We started walking up the path. Eventually, we reached the tower. Tim waited patiently as I checked our bags and grabbed some things out of the Kangashkan Rock. A sudden jolt went through the ground, knocking Tim and I off balance. I landed on him. I looked at his face for several seconds, blushed, and then got off of him.

"Earthquake," Tim said, dusting himself off. He made a suggestive coughing sound, and then continued, "I think that Temporal Tower is already starting to collapse. We need to proceed with caution,"

I agreed and we started climbing the tower, my Silver bow fluttering slightly as we went.

The first half of the Temporal Tower wasn't that bad. I had learned all of the moves that I could, as had Tim. We were both at about level 50. Timothy had actually learned a move that he shouldn't have until his next evolution- Dark Pulse. That one didn't last long though. You'll see what I mean later on.

We reached the half-way point. Another tremor went through the ground. This time, we were better prepared for it.

"That tremor was worse than the last one," I said.

Tim nodded. "We need to hurry. We're running out of time,"

We continued. This leg of the Tower was much more difficult because of the small quakes that would send us tumbling one way or the other. On the final floor, floor 10, I looked up at Timothy. We were right in front of the steps, leading up to the pinnacle. I hopped up onto my hind legs so I was almost as tall as Timothy. I set my paws on his shoulders and looked at him in the eye.

"No matter what happens up there, don't lose hope," I said. Then I gave him a kiss. It was more than what I had given him at Fogbound Lake. It was a real kiss.

We went up the stairs, well prepared for what awaited us up there. Or were we?

The sky above us was in a tumult of red and bright splashes of lightning here and there. The fur on the back of my neck stood up on end. I looked forward.

"There it is," I said. There was a huge stone panel with five gear-shaped slots gouged out. "That's where we need to put the Time Gears,"

Tim nodded and started to walk forward. He was stopped short by a bolt of lightning. We both jumped back. That's when we heard Him.

"YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE!" he said.

"No, you're wrong!" I shouted to the skies. "We are here to save time from stopping!"

"TIME… STOPPING…" the voice growled. Then, he roared. Dialga appeared in front of us, blocking our way to the stone panel. He roared again.

"He's out of control!" I said to Tim. "We are going to need to knock him out!"

"YOU WILL NEVER DESTROY TIME!" Primal Dialga roared.

And thus, Dialga's fight to the finish started.

Heart pounding, I blew out a Fire Spin at him. It smashed into him, taking out quite a bit of damage. Timothy ran up and started pounding at his leg with Force Palm. Primal Dialga was unfazed by this. He opened his mouth and let out a tremendous roar, the Roar of Time. I was able to evade it by ducking underneath the shock wave, but Timothy was not nearly so lucky. He was caught up in it and carried to a far corner of the pinnacle. He crashed up against a column and fell to the floor.

I was seeing red now. I let loose with a barrage of Fire Blasts while Dialga was still recharging from Roar of Time. But when he was done, he was not happy. He lifted one claw and slashed me with a mighty Dragon Claw. That one move alone took out a huge hunk of my HP, and I felt dizzy. Dialga came towards me, rocks already floating in preparation for Ancient Power.

I closed my eyes and waited for the end to come. But that's when a miracle took place. A blazing blue Aura Sphere came and hit Dialga in the chest plate, knocking off his concentration. I looked over at Tim. His aura was shining bright blue, like the way it should. He was already charging up another Aura Sphere. That filled me with hope. I jumped up and went over by Tim. I blew Flame Thrower after Flame Thrower, while Tim fired off more Aura Spheres than I would ever be able to count. Both were super effective.

Dialga went down on one knee, and then fell over onto his side, breathing heavily. He was unconscious. But then another tremor went through the ground. And this time, it didn't stop. Tim and I crawled past Dialga to the stone panel. Tim got up and ran up the stairs. I tried to follow him up, but a sudden shock threw me off balance. I tumbled down, boing boing boing. Ow ow ow…

I looked up and watched Tim set the Time Gears in place. As soon as the final one was put in its place, they were absorbed into the panel, and the patterns started glowing. A huge jolt went through the ground and Timothy fell. Head over heels, I watched in horror. I closed my eyes as everything became pure white.

I opened my eyes again. Everything was still white, but I saw someone coming towards me. She smiled at me.

"You have done it," she said. "You did what I couldn't do."

I looked at her, and then I realized who that was.

"Jet?"

"Of course! Who else could it be?" She said. The black Ninetails came over to me. "You probably don't remember this, but I'm the one who saved you when you encountered trouble during time travel- well, really it was my spirit, but… you get the picture… And now I'll save you again!"

"I-I don't understand…" I said.

"And you never will," She said. Her face was grey with age, similar to Senior's face. She put it towards mine and breathed on me.

I opened my eyes. I was on my side, and my entire body hurt. I saw Tim laying a little ways away. He wasn't moving. I couldn't even tell if he was breathing. I stood up, slowly and painfully, and walked over to him. I sat down next to him. I looked at his face. His eyes were closed. I didn't even notice that tears were filling mine. Eventually, one small tear slipped down and landed on his face.

Tim snorted and opened his eyes, trying to wipe my tears from his face. I gasped and hugged him long and hard, tears streaming down my face.

"I thought I lost you…" I whispered. Tim tenderly wrapped his arms around me.

"THANK YOU," said the booming voice behind us. We turned and saw Dialga, no longer tormented by the darkness. "YOU HAD THE BRAVERY TO STAND UP TO ME, EVEN AS I RAGED OUT OF CONTROL,"

"Um… you're welcome…" Tim said unsurely.

"NOW, LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING," Dialga said. Then, using his psychic powers, he showed us…

"This is… Tree Shroud Forest…" I heard Tim say.

'Dialga must be using telepathy,' I thought. We both watched as Tree Shroud burst into movement again. The winds blew softly, rustling the leaves of the trees.

That image faded, and we saw Treasure Town. Summer and Quinton were chasing Azurill and Marill down the street. Marowak was taking a leisurely stroll back from Spinda's café. Teddiursa and Ursaring were holding a friendly conversation with Basil and Grant. Bidoof and Sunflora were at Kangashkan's storage, and Myuki and Sikyatavo were at Keckleon's store, buying something.

Finally, Dialga brought us back to reality. He thanked us again and asked us if there was anything he could do for us.

"No…" Tim said. "We're fine, thank you,"

"WELL, YOU TWO NEED TO GO HOME," Dialga said. "YOU MAY HAVE SAVED TIME, BUT TEMPORAL TOWER IS STILL IN BAD SHAPE. I MUST REBUILD,"

"Ok, thank you," I said. And so, Tim and I walked down out of Temporal Tower

**(Author's note: I'm crying as I write this, just to let you know… If you don't, then you either haven't read the other chapters in this story, or you have no emotions)**

"Hey, Alex!" Tim called. "Hurry up! I want to get home!"

I was moving slowly. Why was I moving so slowly? It was as if my legs were weighed down by the heaviest lead. Perhaps… Now that we've changed the future… my own disappearance is coming…

"Alex, come on!" Tim said again. He surged forward. I took one step, and then another. That's when I noticed it.

"This… this light," I whispered, watching the small white orb float up. It disappeared into thin air. Then I noticed another one float up. And another. I knew what was happening. "My time with Timothy… is ending now,"

"Alex?" Timothy said once he noticed I wasn't following him. "Alex, what's wrong? Why… what are those lights?"

I looked at Tim, tears already starting to form. "I am sorry Tim," I said. "I've kept this to myself for a while, but… I'm disappearing,"

"What?" he said. He took a step closer to me. "What do you mean? Is this some sort of joke?"

I shook my head. "No… It was Dusknoir who told me… Once we changed the future, the future that I came from would cease to exist… That's why I'm destined to disappear to… It's not just me, either! Grovyle, Celebi, Whione, everyone will be gone," Now my tears were falling thick and fast. I ran up to Timothy and threw myself into his arms. I sat in his arms, sobbing.

"Why do you have to go…" he whispered as he ran his paw through my hair.

I noticed that the lights were starting to get brighter. "Tim, I'm going to disappear soon, but I just want you to know… I love you Tim,"

"I… I do, too," Tim said. Tears were starting to fall down his face, too. "I don't know what I'll do… I don't know if I can make it… Please, stay…"

"No, Tim…" I said. I stared him in the eye. "You have to be strong! Get back to Treasure Town, tell everyone what happened here… Tell them so that… So that nothing like this ever happens again,"

I started feeling light-headed at that point. Shaking, I reached up to the top of my head and pulled off my Silver Bow. I placed it gently in Timothy's paw. I looked up at him for one final time, closed my eyes, and kissed him good bye. And then, I knew no more.

_Timothy closed his eyes. Tears were slipping down his face. His paw made a fist around the Silver Bow. When he opened his eyes again, she was gone. He looked around, calling her name. He looked up to the sky and screamed._

_ "I have to get home," he said to himself over and over. "Because it's Alex's last wish…" He must have said that a hundred times before he reached the Rainbow Stoneship. He actually tripped on the uneven ground before reaching the ship and stepping on. Several seconds later, the ship started moving._

_ "There it goes," He said out loud. "Temporal Tower… I'm getting farther away from Temporal Tower… And I'm getting… Getting farther away from… From Alex… Alex, why did you leave me?"_

_ And so, Timothy made his way back through the ravaged Hidden Land and got to Lapras. She seemed to understand his silence, and she ferried him back across the sea of time. _

_ Summer and Quinton had been going out to Sharpedo Bluff every evening to watch for the trio's return. When they spotted Lapras on the horizon, they ran back to the guild, shouting and laughing. But when only Timothy arrived at the guild, everyone had questions._

_ "She gave her life… They both did…" He said. Then he told the story. He told the story of how they had traveled across the sea of time, across the hidden land. He told them of how Dusknoir had ambushed them at the temple, and how Grovyle had sacrificed himself. He told them of how he and Alex had battled Dialga on top of the Temporal Tower, and finally of Alex's tear filled good bye. He also spoke of how time had been set right and the world had been saved._

_ And just as Alex had asked, he told the story whenever and whenever possible, to as many other Pokémon as possible. And she had been right. It was a story of peace and a story of hope. It was a story of the hope that nothing like this would ever happen again._

_ So, the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. At one point, Team Skull made a small appearance to offer their condolences to Timothy. After that, Treasure Town returned to its cheerful routines- somewhat. No one could quite forget the spunky explorer who had touched everyone's lives. The scars from the planet's paralysis slowly healed. But Timothy's scars… Those were emotional scars. And those never heal._

_ One day, many months later…_

"Hey, where're you going?" Bidoof asked. Timothy was exiting the guild just as Bidoof was coming in.

"Just for a walk," He replied. Timothy had grown silent and serious ever since… well, that time.

"Well, don't be late for dinner," Bidoof said light-heartedly. He had tried so many times to make Tim smile- even just once. But no one had seen him smile in ages.

Timothy nodded and went down to the beach. His heart was lifted by the beautiful sight. The Krabby had long since come back, and tonight they were blowing bubbles.

Timothy sat down and watched the bubbles float, and then pop, one by one.

"It's been forever since I've been down here," Tim said. After a few moments of thought, he said, "How long has it been?"

And then he remembered. "The last time I saw this… was when I met Alex," he said. He looked to his left. "Yes, it was right there… there, where our adventure began…"

And so, for a very long time, Timothy sat and remembered all the fun adventures and scary scrapes they had gotten into. Everything, from when they first met, all the way to their parting kiss.

Timothy let the tears fall. The flood gates had been opened, and now he let all of his emotions spill out, laying them out on the sand. He had become uptight, and now he was letting everything go.

"She's gone… And I'll never see her again…" he said as he drew his knees up to his chest. He put his head down and cried. Not too much later, he felt a paw on his shoulder.

"We all miss her," Summer said. She and Quinton had gotten worried and come down to the beach. Timothy looked at her, and then shouted to the skies,

"ALEX, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME? I LOVE YOU!" and then he fell down on his back, letting the tears fall.

_Now, Timothy had just shouted that out of sadness. He never imagined that someone other than Summer and Quinton had heard him, but someone did hear him. Actually, several some ones…_

I opened my eyes. I felt cold, but I could still feel the sun on my skin. I sat up, looking around. I saw several forms laying a short distance away. And then I happened to look down.

I was human again.

I crawled over to the others- Grovyle, Celebi, Whione, and Dusknoir- and shook them awake. Whione looked at me, surprised.

"Alex? I thought…"

"YES, SHE IS HUMAN AGAIN," an echoing voice said. We all looked around, but saw nothing.

"But if she would like, we could change her back into a Pokémon again," said another voice.

"OR SHE MAY REMAIN A HUMAN," said yet another voice. "IT IS HER CHOICE,"

I sat in silence. I looked down at my hands. I was wearing a black dress that fit perfectly on me.I looked up to the skies and gave them my answer.

"Both," I said with a wry smile on my face.

Timothy had long since stopped crying, but had yet to get up or even open his eyes. Summer and Quinton had remained with him, though. Summer looked up. The sun was just about to slip below the horizon. He turned to Timothy to tell him it was time to go, but stopped short. She nudged Tim and pointed.

A soft, pale light had appeared. It was taking a shape. Timothy looked on as tears started to run down his face. He crawled over to where she lay.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. She smiled, and then stood up. She looked Timothy in the eyes, and then kissed him. Timothy hugged her back. Summer and Quinton watched on in silence, tears falling from their eyes.

Timothy looked at her again, hardly believing. But then he whispered in her ear, "I love you,"

"I love you too," she replied.

Alex had come home.


	22. The End Or is It?

The End

Or is it?

Chase stared at her notebook; or really, her notebooks. Then she looked up at Timothy and Alex.

"So, that's it?" she asked.

"Are you kidding me?" Alex laughed. "That was only the beginning of our adventures! Chase, you must keep in mind that we're both over 300 years old- and that was simply two of those years. But that is not for now,"

"No kidding," Chase said. She stood up and stretched. "Well, I'll be getting these off to Willow now. But I will come back to hear more of your amazing stories,"

"Amazing is an understatement!" Timothy said, laughing.

Chase grabbed her guitar and her bag and then headed back home- far, far to the south. Her silver fur glinted in the sunlight as she walked. But that is Chase's story, not Alex and Timothy's.

Alex looked up at Timothy and smiled. "A lot of things have happened since then, hasn't there?"

Timothy smiled and ran his paw through her hair. The faithful Silver Bow was still there, after all these years. Then he reached down to his own chest, lightly touching the Relic Fragment that hung from a worn cord around his neck.

"Yes, many things,"

Timothy and Alex sat and looked at the setting sun from the bluff. Many things had changed since that time- Treasure Town had expanded, gotten a hospital (Under Marowak's Administration), and even a new exploration guild that was partnered with Wigglytuff's place. Sharpedo bluff also had gotten a little bit of a renovation- Dugtrio and his son had dug tunnels that led into Alex and Timothy's children's rooms and other rooms for extra storage. They had long since run out of room at Kangashkan's storage.

"Want to go down to the beach?" Timothy asked.

"I would love to," Alex said. And so, they did. Three hundred years had come full circle for Team Diamond. You have heard two years, readers. And soon, Chase will return to document the other 298. She will document them and then send them to me, Willow-of-Johto, to write for your enjoyment.

Well, that's it for now. Let's let Alex and Timothy have a little bit of peace before sending them back into another story of their youth… Who am I kidding?


End file.
